


Butchly and the Beast

by sittingoverheredreaming



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: AU, Beauty and the Beast, Beauty and the Beast AU, Beauty and the Beast Elements, F/F, Fairy Tale Retellings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-05-14 01:12:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 23,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14759766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sittingoverheredreaming/pseuds/sittingoverheredreaming
Summary: When Haruka's truck breaks down in the middle of nowhere, she comes upon a mansion and intends to ask for help. What she finds inside is something she could never expect.





	1. Chapter 1

There had to be something wrong with the map. Haruka slowed to examine it once again. This was supposed to be a scenic detour, just a reroute to show her more of the countryside as she passed through. But now her phone was dead and the sun was setting behind the ever thickening trees and she hadn’t seen a gas station or any sign of life for god knew how long.

According to the map, she should have passed two small towns by now.

She wasn’t lost. Haruka didn’t get lost. She had a great sense of direction and—

And her low fuel light was on.

Shit.

There had to be something around. She was not yet in the part of the country when she could go fifty miles without so seeing so much as a truck stop. She couldn’t have misread the map that badly.

And there it was— faint light glimmering like hope in the distance. She just had to make it there, and someone would help her, or at least let her charge her phone.

Her rusty pickup sputtered to a stop, but Haruka’s spirits were buoyant now. She sprung out from behind the wheel, locked it up, and jogged towards the light.

She slowed as she approached. It was an old-style mansion set into the trees, dark but for one window. Haruka could make out one stooped shadow through the curtains— that was lucky, old ladies often had a soft spot for her. Always wanted to feed her up, and she always needed it.

No one answered her knock at the door, but it opened at Haruka’s touch. If the poor old broad lived alone, she’d take time to make it down stairs. There couldn’t be any harm in just stepping in from the night. Haruka unlaced her boots and left them by the door. The floor was cold under her socks, but clean. Someone had to come to tidy, then. Maybe the old womans’ children. Haruka smiled at her idea of what went on. The old woman’s son came once a week or so to help out, but spent so much time cleaning the many rooms that the old lady felt lonelier than ever. She’d be delighted by Haruka’s unexpected company, she’d pinch her cheeks and promise her son, who had a bigger, nicer truck, could give Haruka a tow to the next town.

The thought made Haruka comfortable, so she began to explore while she waited for the lady to make it downstairs. Down the hall was a sitting room with a crackling fire. It bore only one chair. Haruka sat on the floor, feeling a slight twinge of sadness. Perhaps the old lady just hired someone to clean, and had no reason to expect anyone to sit and talk with her. She’d definitely be glad to have someone, but—-

Amidst the cracks and pops of the fire, Haruka heard a distinct slither.

She turned, thinking snake, thinking things that crawled in the night, the hair on the back of her neck standing at full attention, but there was nothing.

She may have imagined it. She turned back.

Something that was not a snake and was not an old lady rushed her from the shadows, lifting her by the shoulders and pinning her to the far wall.

It was like a snake, with a long tail and body that together were probably twice Haruka’s height, and it was like a woman also, though age was impossible to say. Hair hung limp in greasy green patches from its scalp. It’s skin was paled to gray and the contours of its face were exaggerated far past bony. The hands that held Haruka to the wall bore claws. Its eyes, though… There was something frighteningly human in its big blue eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Its voice was a raspy hiss. “No man may trespass upon my house.”

“I-I’m sorry.” Haruka’s heart beat so hard in her throat she could barely speak. “My truck broke down, I was just looking for some help.” She swallowed hard. “I can leave, but if you could point me in the right direction…”

The monster’s grip loosened. It looked over Haruka, giving her a sickening sense that she might be eaten.

“What’s your name?”

“H-Haruka.”

“No one has come here for a very long time.” The monster spoke slow now, so quiet Haruka could barely hear.

“I’m sorry, I—“

The monster dropped her. “You will stay.”

“Stay?”

It rose a hand, and in the distance, Haruka heard the door she’d entered through slam. “This place will give you everything you need, so long as you do not enter the northern chambers.”

Haruka stared at the tiling of the stone floor and tried to process. The monster thing was frightening, but the house was more than she’d ever had. Already she could smell foods she liked cooking in a far-off kitchen. Perhaps that should frighten her more, but if she couldn’t leave anyway… The only thing was Mina.

“Can I charge my phone?”

The monster blinked. “Can you… what?”

Haruka pulled out her phone. “My phone. I’ve got the charger, I just need an outlet.”

No sign of comprehension came across its face.

“Do you… have electricity here?”

“Oh, I’m afraid not. We… I am not new money like that.”

Well, the good news then, Haruka supposed, was it would only be a matter of time before Mina came to find her. A few days living in what was practically a palace, and then she’d be rescued. That was doable, even with something as monstrous as what stood before her.

“I can show you to a bedroom, if you would like.”

“Okay.” Haruka gathered herself from the floor.’

“The wardrobes will give you any clothes you desire,”the monster said, as though it was important. “As will the kitchens produce food.” It began to slither down a long hall. “Perhaps… we shall have dinner together, starting tomorrow. It is proper for guests to dine with their host.”

Haruka did not want to see what or how the thing ate, but she nodded along. It could kill her without effort, she was certain.

“Is this bedchamber to your liking?” it asked, opening a door and gesturing inside.

Haruka stepped over its tail to take a look. It was grand, just a touch below gaudy, with a faded red canopy over the bed and ornate carving on the frame and matching wardrobe. She would never choose it, but something told her there would be nothing more low-key.

“It’s fine.”

“Then I will take my leave for the night.” The monster turned down the hall.

“Wait.” Haruka’s own voice surprised her. “You never told me your name.”

The monster stopped, looking down instead of back at Haruka. “I am… I was the Lady Kaioh. If it pleases you, you may call me Michiru.”

“Okay.” Haruka swallowed. “Goodnight, Michiru.”

It— she, Haruka corrected— turned away quickly, a shiver running down her strange body. “Goodnight, Haruka.”


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a very long time since the curse had brought her something more than wariness. Michiru had stopped counting the days and years, resigning herself to be as she was until the world turned to dust.

“Michiru, do you think she might be the one?” The shade of her lady in waiting asked as she combed what passed for Michiru’s hair. The time would come soon when she would not be able to, Michiru was certain. Makoto was barely a shadow now. Michiru’s closest attendants had been casualties of the curse, and now they had faded into ghosts.

“Do you think she knows my daughter?” Her handmaid Usagi twiddled with the vanity mirror, tilting Michiru’s reflection in and out of focus. “She must be at least… two and twenty by now!”

Time no longer tethered the shades. The came in and of consciousness, sometimes worn down by the decades— perhaps the centuries— sometimes feeling they’d all been human but a day ago.

“There is no _one_.” Michiru stood. “It is only in stories that curses break.” And yet… It was not that she felt hope, exactly. It was something more like fear.  _You shall be made to feel as low as you make others feel, and then a hundred-fold more._  If the curse were to be broken, it would be because she fulfilled its terms.

“She is rather handsome,” Makoto said, her voice soft enough that Usagi would not hear. “You fancy her.”

Michiru curled her long tail around herself. It was more than the girl’s looks that called to her. “She sat on the floor.” She had not recognized it in the moment, but as she had turned the night over and over in her mind, it had struck her.

Makoto did not have face enough to smile, but her warmth came through all the same. “She is the opposite of what he was.”

“You have always been to blunt.”

“Forgive me, my lady.”

Michiru stared into the mirror. She had been a beautiful lady once, the envy of near every court woman and the desire of every man. And now… she was a diamond, crumbled into coal. “I cannot look presentable for dinner, can I?”

“Oh, my lady,” Usagi cried, having lost none of the bounce her physical form had. “Beauty comes from inside, she’ll surely see that.”

It was an easy belief for someone like Usagi, low of birth with no great beauty, who’d had her pick of the townsmen anyway. She could not see that Michiru had never had that sort of light inside her. If the saying were true, Haruka would recoil from her all the same.

She took her leave and wound her way towards the dining hall slowly. She had forgotten what it was to want. The perversity of her form felt new again, the way it bent along the stairs, the way she could feel bones and muscle and scales in places they shouldn’t be, the way her fingers were jointed to accommodate claws. It was easy to not feel like a monster when there was no one to see her but her shades.

Michiru took a breath outside the doors. She was a well-bred lady, whatever she looked like. She would carry herself with decorum worthy of her blood, and come what may.

Haruka looked small, sitting at the grand table, surrounded by empty chairs. She had not touched the small pile of food before her, nor had she changed out of the clothes she arrived in.

“Have you found nothing to your liking?”

“What?”

Michiru gestured to her garb.

“Oh… I… I haven’t looked.” She stood. “I can go change, if you want, I didn’t mean—“

“There is no need. I merely want you to be comfortable.”

Haruka sat back down, but Michiru saw in her eyes that she was never going to be comfortable here. She took a seat at the far end of the table, to give her space. Haruka took food in silence. Michiru stared at her place setting.

She had not bothered with proper silverware for what felt like ages. Her hands shook. She could not hold them right, with the claws. They clattered against each other as she tried, every movement of her fingers left deep scores in the tabletop. The whole table shook each time she attempted to pick up her fork. She let her arms fall to the side and resigned herself to a dinnerless night.

Haruka looked at her from the corner of her eye, but quickly turned back to her food.

This had been a terrible idea. All Michiru had done was make her monsterousness all the clearer.

“I do apologize,” she said, rising. “I do not seek to burden you.” Perhaps it would be better to let her go, rather than face further humiliation. She made for the door.

“You don’t  have to go.” Haruka’s voice shook. “If I’m going to be stuck here, I might as well have company.”

Michiru let her claws sink into the wood around the door handle. “If you fear loneliness, I can send others to keep you company.”

“There are others?”

“Ghosts, or something like them. But I assure you, you will enjoy their company much more than mine.” She propelled herself from the room, grateful and repulsed at how fast her body could move. Shame stung at her eyes. The once great Lady Kaioh was now nothing but an ugly fool. She retreated to her room, her one small piece of luck being that her ladies had gone elsewhere for the night.

The vanity mirror taunted her. Look at the monster, see how it cries. She how it dares now to act like it has a human heart, when inside it has always been this. See how—

She swung her scraggy, boney fist, and it shattered. It did not matter how the shards cut into her knuckles, nor how the pieces on the floor sliced her tail as she moved. It did not matter when a monster bled or cried. And a monster was what she was, only that and nothing more.


	3. Chapter 3

The sun was Haruka’s only hint at the time. The room she’d been given had two small windows, facing south, just large enough to stick her head out of. They bore heavy red velvet curtains that cast her into eternal night when closed. Open, though… she managed to pin one side to the wall with an understuffed armchair that had been in the corner.

 It was morning, now. The sunlight glittered on the dew-wet tree tops. Haruka tried to see her truck through the leaves, but she could not even find the road. It wouldn’t matter if she could find her way to it, though. There was nothing but trees as far as she could see, and without gas she did not trust she’d make it back to civilization.

“It’s a bit too small if you’re trying to escape.”

Haruka jumped, banging her head on the top of the window. She bit her lip to keep from swearing. Behind her was… at first she saw nothing, but then it moved. A little ripple in the light, the faintest shadow of a human form… two human forms. The ghosts the mon- the ghosts Michiru had mentioned.

“Oh dear!” the shorter one said, scurrying to Haruka’s side, arms posed like she held up voluminous unseen skirts. “We didn’t mean to startle you! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just a little bump.” 

The little ghost stretched to reach Haruka’s head. Her fingers ruffled through her hair like a winter breeze. Haruka shivered, but the pain receded.

“I’m Usagi.” The ghost dipped into something like a curtsy. “And this is Makoto. Do you by chance know my daughter?”

The ghost did not have any discernible facial features, but Haruka could feel the eagerness radiate from her. She felt a tug of deep sadness. If the mansion was as old as it seemed, the ghost’s daughter was probably long gone.

“I’m not from around here, sorry.”

“That’s a pity, my daughter has probably grown into a wonderful lady you’d be lucky to know. Or…” the ghost spun excitedly. “It’s a good thing, because if my daughter is your age, you’d surely fall in love with her instead of--”

“Usagi.”

The small ghost made herself smaller. “Sorry.”

Makoto came forward, gliding rather than walking. “Our Lady Michiru believed you may need company.”

“Oh, no, I’m alright, you guys don’t need to—“

“But we want to!” Usagi butted in again. “We haven’t had a visitor in… in…” She froze, fading in and out of full color and clarity. She was round and blonde, with blue eyes wide in horror. “It’s been…” She rose a transparent hand to her opaque face. “We are…”

Makoto flashed into clarity and put a solid hand on Usagi’s shoulder. They both calmed back to shadows.

“Well,” Usagi said, as though nothing had happened, “it’s been several years, at least. So we could use the company as much as you could!”

Haruka forced a smile. “Alright then.” If she stayed here, would she face the same fate? Had the creature trapped these two women years ago, and now that they had died or done whatever had put them in this limbo, she’d decided she needed another?

“Do not be afraid,” Makoto said gently, as though sensing Haruka’s thoughts. “We are Michiru’s handmaidens, while she is trapped here so are we.” She turned to the door. “Would you allow us to give you a tour?”

“Um, sure.”

They took her through various sitting rooms, the kitchen, a library and even a wine cellar. Usagi advised her on the many nooks and crannies where you might— not that she had, that would be irresponsible as a lady’s maid, but still, you might— sneak a suitor in to have a moment alone. Makoto was more practical, she told Haruka where the entrance to the walled gardens was, if she would like to go outside, and all the staircases that led to the floor her bedroom was on.

They came upon a staircase that neither of them said a word about. Haruka stopped. “Is that where she told me not to go?”

Both ghosts froze. “Yes,” Makoto said. “And you’d best keep to that.”

“Why?”

“Haruka! Michiru is a lady.” Haruka had the keen sense that Usagi had her hands on her hips. “She can’t have someone like you in her chambers. It would be improper.”

Makoto hurried them both along. Haruka wondered if that was the whole story, or if it was true at all.

“What else can you tell me about her?”

“Generally,” Makoto said sternly, “if you want to know about someone, you should ask them directly.” 

“Well, yeah, but…” 

She softened. “You’re afraid.” 

“No!” Haruka’s stubbornness got the better of her. “I would never, I just—“ 

“She was made to be frightening,” Usagi said quietly. “I was scared for a while, too.” Her shadow shrunk down smaller than ever. “It hurts our Lady. She could always be scary, but she got to choose when.” 

“She was not nice, but nor was she cruel. Her family took care of the town, and employed many of its people, and she had no need to extend more kindness than that.”

“What happened, then?”

“Oh Haruka,” Usagi said. “You can’t expect us to spill all her secrets for her.”

Haruka could not help but smile a little. “I’m beginning to think you’re plotting something.”

“It would do Michiru good to have company aside from us.” Makoto sighed. “She does not like to admit to loneliness, but it’s clear she’s suffering.”

Part of Haruka wanted to shout that she, too, would suffer when kept as a prisoner, especially with something that, while they spoke highly of her, was still clearly a monster, but she thought better of it. “She did seem… sad, last night.”

Usagi nodded her shadowy head. “She wanted so badly to impress you!”

That, perhaps more than anything else, rang true to Haruka. The creature had tried so had to grasp the silverware, and Haruka had pretended not to see but all she could wonder was why she did not simply eat with her claws, if it was what she was accustomed to. She felt bad, now, for how she’d reacted. Michiru had been, it seemed, a person. Still was, probably, despite how she looked. Haruka’s cheeks flushed with shame. She knew what it was like, to be treated as less than you were.

She thought for a long moment. “Could the two of you convince her to come to dinner again?”

“We can try.”

“And the kitchens will make anything I want? Even if it’s not a food that you guys would know?”

“It should, yes.”

“Haruka, are you plotting too?”

She laughed. “I think I just might be.”

****

Haruka made her way to the dining room that evening and was please to find exactly what she’d wanted. The table bore a large plate of hamburgers and a practical troph of fries. She deeply wished she could send a pic of it to Mina, it was a party dream come true.

She took a seat towards the middle, so that wherever Michiru sat there would not be so much distance between them.

The shadows from the windows grew longer. The food stayed magically warm, but Haruka still worried. Her misgivings about trying to befriend a monster, her captor, began to rise in her stomach again.

There was a rustle outside the door. Haruka caught a glimpse of a scaly tail in the crack it was open. Michiru was pacing outside. Haruka surprised herself by thinking there was something almost endearing in it.

“Please come in,” she said as steadily as she could.

Michiru came to the door, half hiding behind it. “What is this?”

“They’re hamburgers.” Haruka took one. “They’re good. You eat them like this.” She rose it to her mouth and took a bite.

“If all you seek is to poke fun—“

“No, no! I like them.” She took some fries, hoping to drive the point home. “I thought you might too.”

Michiru hesitated, but then slowly approached the table. She took a seat again at the end of the table and took a burger as gingerly as she might handle porcelain. Her claws strained the bun but did not pierce it.

She looked at it with suspicion, then glanced to Haruka. “What is the year?”

Haruka swallowed her bite quickly. “2018.”

“Ah.” She turned back to the food. “And people… eat with their hands now?”

“Sometimes, yeah. For burgers and pizza, and stuff. We don’t eat steak or whatever by picking it up like this.”

“Oh.” She looked at the meat. “Is this not a steak?”

“It’s beef, yeah, but if there’s bread like this, we use our hands.”

“Like with hors de’ouvers.”

“Sure.”

Haruka watched, hopefully not in ant way that was weird, as Michiru chanced a bite. Her gaunt face twisted the moment it was in her mouth. “Oh dear, it’s quite… well, I should hope I’m not being rude, but it’s absolutely disgusting.”

Haruka laughed. “Yeah, we probably have way worse taste than people did in your day.”

“I would say so.”

They made eye contact, smiling at each other for the first time.

“We’ll try something else tomorrow, I’ll try and figure out—“

“Tomorrow?”

“Well, yeah, you said it was proper to have dinner together every day. Or do you mean you want something else now?”

“Oh no, you don’t need to worry on my behalf.” She looked down at her plate, limp hair falling over her shoulder. For a moment, Haruka could see how the motion would look on a person, on a woman who might be called beautiful. “You have been very kind to me, and I have not repaid you as such.”

“You don’t gotta…”

“Do you wish to leave?”

Haruka shut her mouth, suspicious of a trick.

“I can’t keep you here, I know. I acted selfishly, and I want you to go freely.”

“Well, I can’t get far without gas for my truck, and I know you can’t give me any.”

“I apologize.”

“Don’t worry about it. Can we make a deal?” Michiru nodded. “My roommate will come looking for me. Can I stay here until she finds me? She’s tenacious, she’ll make it eventually.”

“That sounds fair.”

“And until then, we can always have dinner together. And maybe…” Haruka wracked her brains for a good gesture of faith. “Makoto told me about the gardens, but didn’t take me. Maybe tomorrow you could show me around?”

Michiru pushed her burger around her plate, a small smile breaking across her face. “I would like that, Haruka.”

Haruka stopped just short of saying “It’s a date.” Life had gotten very strange very fast.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey, it’s Haruka… Tennoh. It’s Haruka Tennoh. You know. Leave a message.”

 

Minako grabbed a handful of her hair as it beeped. “Listen, you complete and utter fucktruck, stop making me worry, call me the fuck back and change your stupid voicemail.”

 

She chucked her phone onto the bed. Then, for good measure, she threw herself after it. Fear was not a feeling she liked much. At first, she’s figured Haruka had been seduced by some woman and had decided to stay a night, forgetting to charge her phone because she was too much of a lesbian to think of anything when a pretty woman got involved. But she would have called the next day, and come home, and it had been over forty eight hours since she should have been back and her phone went straight to voicemail every damn time she called.

 

Minako was afraid, the way mothers that weren’t either of theirs were always afraid. _You might have been dead in a ditch!_

 

She shook her head. She was Minako Aino, and Minako Aino did not sit around and worry. Minako Aino took action.

 

And every action started with the right outfit.

 

She sprung from the bed and rummaged through her tiny closet. The key would be to look young and modest, play up the practically sisters angle, but show just enough cleavage to give men that little push to help her. Haruka would be offended at that, but Mina had always said she’d stop doing it when it stopped working.

 

There were only two other things she needed-- a photo of Haruka, carefully chosen so that she also looked young and sweet, and one of her dirty gym socks. Mina did not know how they would track her down, but she wanted to be prepared.

 

She drove-- obeying the speed limits, for once-- over to the police precinct. It wasn’t one she’d ever been too, thankfully. It looked painfully ordinary. A simple workplace. Inside, simple people were doing their simple jobs. Minako strode up to the front desk. “I’m here to report a missing person.”

 

The secretary looked up. She was striking, dark hair and eyes that suggested a ferocity that lied in wait while she tap-tap-tapped her fingers on her keyboard. “Someone will be with you shortly.”

 

Her eyes stayed on Minako while she waited in one of the stupid plastic chairs along the wall. Someone was not with her shortly. Someone took their sweet time to wander over, and then had the gall to eye her with suspicion.

 

“You’re reporting a missing person?” The movement of his mouth was barely visible under his scrub brush of a mustache.

 

“I am. Haruka Tennoh, age 26, she went to the car show out in—“

 

He held up his meaty hand. “Not a kid?”

 

“No.”

 

“Hino,” he said to the secretary. “Give her the paperwork.” He turned back to Mina. “You’ll be contacted if she turns up in any hospitals.”

 

“I’d like to find her before that point!” Mina took a deep breath. “It’s your job to look for her.”

 

“Sweetheart, she probably doesn’t want to be found.” He glanced to the picture in Mina’s hand. “Girlfriends run away all the time, you’d best—“

 

“That’s not what happened, we’re not—“

 

But he was already halfway back to his office.

 

Mina turned to the secretary. “I don’t want your stupid paperwork.”

 

“Take it,” she said, voice low and intense. “You might find something helpful.”

 

There was something intriguing about the secretary— Ms. Hino. Something Mina would have found attractive, if it were a less dire time. She took the papers, and sure enough, there was something ussseful. A business card, bearing a logo for “Red Planet Private Investigations.” On the back, printed in absurdly neat script: “9 o’clock, PM. The Firefly.”

 

Mianko knew better than to look back towards Ms. Hino. She had to get ready for a night on the town.

 

————

 

The Firefly was hardly a bar Minako would frequent, though she understood why Ms. Hino would choose it for a meeting like this. It was dim, lit only by lamps littered across the floors and tables, and loud, despite a conspicuous lack of dancing. Every patron gave off a cultivated disinterest in everything around them, particularly each other. Mina sat at the bar and ordered a beer. The bartender eyed her up and down. “You’re one of Hino’s?”

 

“Do I stand out that much?”

 

The bartender smiled, sweeter than her dark clothes and patronage would make Mina expect. “She’s got a thing for the colorful ones. Can’t blame her.”

 

“And here I’d hoped I was special.” Mina leaned forward. “What can you tell me about her?”

 

The bartender laughed. “If you’ve gotta ask, you’re in over your head.” She slid Mina’s beer to her. “We went to college together, and were into some of the same activism scenes.” She offered her hand. “I’m Hotaru.”

 

“Mina.”

 

“You don’t need to be friendly, Hotaru, it’s business.”

 

Minako stood to attention, but Hotaru shrugged. “It’s always business. I have more fun pretending otherwise.”

 

“Hotaru turns off the security cameras for me.” Ms. Hino said, sitting down. “So we can talk freely.”

 

“Rei wanted the bar to be nothing but a cover, but I quite like running it.”

 

Ms. Hino rolled her eyes. “It makes money, at least.”

 

“And I’ve still got the daytime hours to help run intel.”

 

“She’s got a missing person.” Rei tossed a file onto the bar. “Haruka Tennoh, last record about three days ago. Her truck was clocked on a traffic cam at 5:42, and then nothing.”

 

“Map?”

 

Rei pulled one from the file. Hotaru traced her fingers over it. “Mina, is your friend given to taking backroads?”

 

“Sometimes, yeah.”

 

“Hmm…” Hotaru’s voice went low and gravely. “There’s an old legend about this forest here. It was once a town, big and prosperous, cared for by a wealthy family who lived in a mansion at the town’s center.” She indicated a spot among the roadless green. “They and the townspeople lived harmoniously, until the lord and lady of the house passed and their callous and cruel daughter took over. She did not care for the townspeople, wanted nothing to do with them.” Hotaru motioned for Mina and Rei to lean in. They did. “She so hated the hard working townsfolk, that when they would not leave her alone… she cursed herself and razed the town, driving everyone from the homes they loved. Those that would not leave were cursed, their souls never finding rest.” A light below the bar clicked on, casting Hotaru’s face in shadow. “And if you go looking for your friend there, you must beware of facing the same fate.”

 

Rei huffed and leaned over to turn off the light. “This is serious.”

 

“It might be true. Teenie’s gran said her gran was trapped by the witch.”

 

“Your girlfriend’s superstitious family aside, if she may gone through there, it’s as good a place as any to check out.” Rei marked the map. “Minako, we’ll let you know what we find, it will probably take a few days—“

 

“Oh ho ho ho, hold it right there. If you think I’m not coming with you, you’ve got another thing coming.”

 

“That’s not how this works. You’ll get in the way.”

 

“I know Haruka better than anyone on this earth, I know what she would do and where she would go. You’ll find her faster if I help.”

 

“She’s not exactly wrong.”

 

“You hush.” Rei pinched the bridge of her nose. “If I say no, I’m going to go out there and find you already looking, aren’t I?”

 

“Read me like a book. Maybe you’re good at this PI thing.”

 

“I’ll charge you more for it.”

 

Mina frowned. “Charge what you want. Just find Haruka.”


	5. Chapter 5

The gardens needed no tending. Whether by design or cruel coincidence, they bloomed in beauty with no mind to time or curses. 

_If not your hand in marriage, mayhaps I may have but a flower in your garden._

Michiru no longer belonged here, atrocity that she was. But Haruka could not have looked more perfect had she been painted into the scene. She had finally changed clothes, donning a simple white tunic and navy trousers. The sunlight caught her hair in a golden halo. She leaned into a rose bush, strong hands delicate around the thrones as she smelled the petals.

Doubt bloomed in Michiru’s heart. A beautiful woman in a beautiful garden should not be intruded upon. She should enjoy it, without—

And then she looked up, the shyest of tiny smiles creeping up one side of her mouth. “I like flowers,” she said, tone inexplicably apologetic.

“Well then I hope you will like it here.”

Haruka made a show of looking around. “It’s very nice.” She looked back to Michiru. “I like your hat.”

Michiru reached up to the rim. “Oh, thank you.” It was a lady’s hat, wide brimmed to keep the sun off delicate skin, trimmed with ribbon and lace. A farce on one such as herself, but she could not but try to dress for the occasion.

“Do you spend a lot of time here?” Haruka asked as they began to walk the winding path.

“I have not walked the gardens for a very long time.”

“Do you not want to? We could—“

“No, no, it’s quite alright. I merely haven’t had a reason.”

Lies upon lies. She would rather be hidden away, where the sunlight did not glint on her scales, where she did not feel brush and moss along the length of her tail, where she did not ache to have the warm arms of a human woman to link into the crook of Haruk’s elbow as they strolled. It was one thing to be a monster in a dark haunted house, and quite another to be one in the light of day.

And yet again… she was not sure she would trade seeing Haruka’s sheepish excitement at the flowers, the way joy burst out of her in the sun before she could think to reign it back in.

“I just haven’t seen so many flowers in one place before,” Haruka said after a while. “There are some gardens back home, kids take pictures there for prom, but I never feel… and they’re not so grand as this anyway.”

MIchiru could not be sure if asking more would be prying. She chose a sideway question to be safe. “What is prom?”

Haruka laughed, warm and bright and Michiru’s heart ached for more. “Prom is… well, like one of your balls, I suppose, did you have balls? But it’s with schools, when you’re a teen. And all the girls are supposed to go with boys, and all the boys are supposed to try and get lucky. And you’ve got to wear a horrible dress, usually with sparkles on it, so I never went.” She smiled, scratching at the back of her neck. “Mina went to like, five though. Dated boys just to go to their proms. She loves that sort of thing.”

“Mina is…”

“My roommate. And best friend. She’s much more glamorous than me.”

“There are things much more valuable than glamour.”

Haruka chuckled again. “Tell her that next time she buys me a tie with sequins on it.”

“I don’t expect to have the chance,” Michiru said, too candidly. Haruka looked to her with knotted brows.

“What…” she started, but then shook her head and looked forward. “There are probably things you can’t tell me, right? But if there are things that could help, I can do them. I’m here anyway, and I mean…” She shrugged. “I’d like to do what I can.”

“Thank you, but there’s nothing to be done.” Michiru adjusted her hat to shield her face from Haruka’s questioning frown. “I am what I am, and I must stay here.”

 

———-

 

The problem, she mused later, back in the safety of solitude, where shards of her vanity mirror still littered the floor, is that there had always been stories, and the stories were always spectacular and dramatic.

She had been cruel, certainly. She had wanted to be left alone, and that was what she got. And maybe it wouldn’t have come to this, had she done even one thing different.

“I do not want the towns people to attend,” she’d said when planning her coming-of-age. She saw them every day, and their absence meant more invitations could go out. She craved more than what their small population had to offer.

“I do not wish to see anyone,” she had said when her parents passed. She was expected to grieve publicly, to consol everyone else who know the lord and lady of the house, and she wanted no part in it.

“I would not marry you or anyone else here were you the last men on earth.” 

And that was all there was. She inflicted cruelty and cruelty was inflicted upon her. She could not tell Haruka there was nothing more to it than that. She had never even found the courage to tell the shades the nature of the curse. They deserved to believe there was a way out.

She slid from her bedroom to the room off its side, where one wall opened to a balcony. At its center she kept a small round table, and the table she kept a hand mirror.

When she’d first changed, she thought it showed her the future. In the glass she saw herself, beautiful and smiling, and she saw Makoto and Usagi regain life and leave. She’d seen travelers come and romance her back to humanity. She’d seen herself change back a hundred times over, and slowly realized it was but a reflection of her desires, not a premonition of anything that would come to pass. 

Michiru knew better than to look now, but still her claws wrapped around its handle and brought it to her face. There she was in the gardens, long dress fluttering against her legs. Her hand rested at Haruka’s elbow. Haruka bore no trace of fear. They walked and talked and smiled. Michiru leaned against the wall. She sighed, heart heavy, and watched the scene change.

Haruka was dress as she was when she came, and Michiru sat next to her in a strange sort of carriage. Her hair and the ribbons of her hat streamed back in the air from the open windows. Haruka laughed and took her hand, placing it on a lever that stuck out between them. The carriage gave a small jerk as they moved it together, and then the Michiru in the glass was laughing too.

“Show me something real,” she whispered.

The image in the glass blurred. She saw the world through her own eyes, through a window at the front of the house. One claw rested against the pane. On the other side, a woman with long blonde hair ushered Haruka into a different carriage,  where another woman waited to take them away. Haruka looked back once, and then was gone.

Michiru set the mirror down. There was some small part of her heart that wanted the right thing. She would not fight it when it came to pass.


	6. Chapter 6

Haruka lie awake in bed. Michiru was… weird. She was a weird strange monster with a weird strange aversion to telling Haruka anything that could help. 

Haruka thought about what it would have been like, walking in the garden with her when she was normal. Human. Haruka might want to… well, if she wasn’t afraid to touch her, she might have held her hand. There was something Haruka felt fondness for, under the claws and scales. If only…

Mina would interject there, Haruka knew.  _ If there’s a big exception in the ‘everything’ you like about her, buddy, you don’t really like her. _

But this was different, surely. This wasn’t someone who talked down to her or was a vegan or any of the other things that Mina had correctly predicted as dealbreakers. This was a bad situation, that Michiru clearly wanted out of. Maybe she didn’t say it, but Haruka knew. 

She jumped up from bed and began to pace. There had to be something she could do. Haruka was handy. Haruka fixed all sorts of things. And maybe those things were inanimate, engines and toilets and the occasional bike chain, but really, she’d had to learn to do all those things, mostly through sheer stubbornness, so she could surely figure out a curse. 

Usually, things weren’t really broken, they were just stuck or off track and needed guidance. Haruka looked out the window in the starry night and pondered. Michiru couldn’t tell her what was wrong, but neither could an engine. You had to take what signs you could and follow them to the problem. 

What did she know? Michiru was cursed long ago, having once been beautiful. Beautiful and high class. She became something monstrous, and seemed to feel it was appropriate. 

That was it! Haruka smacked the side of her head for not realizing sooner. She dashed from her room. 

When Haruka had realized who she was, a lesbian and a butch one at that, she’d been afraid. She’d felt, well, monstrous. Inhuman. If there had been any magic in her small town world, it might have made her feelings real. And for Michiru, it had. It was so simple. No wonder Usagi and Makoto wanted them to spend time together. Michiru just needed to see it was okay!

She paused at the stairs that led to Michiru’s chambers. Part of her recognized the boundary, that there was one thing she was told not to do and therefore she should not do it. But surely-- Surely!-- Michiru would not mind if it turned her back to normal. She bounded up the stairs two at a time. 

“Michiru!” She called at the top. Nothing. Haruka followed the hall to the first open door. 

Unease crept over her. It was a bedroom, and for all she joked that she’d never see a room in worse shape than Minako’s, this one took the cake. Claw marks marred the stone walls, the bed clothes were strewn across the floor, which was also littered with glass. The vanity against one wall had a shattered mirror, and the items that likely belonged on its surface were knocked aside, half broken. 

Haruka’s every instinct told her to run. But her every instinct told her to run every time she saw Michiru, and it was crucial to not give in to that impulse. So she pressed on through the next door, to a small room with a balcony. 

Curiously, the only decor here was upright and in tact— just a small table, bearing a hand mirror. Haruka picked it up. It did not show her face in the glass, but Mina’s. She was in their apartment, reaching into their fridge. She handed someone— no, Haruka recognized the outreaching hand as her own— a beer. The mirror made no sound, but Haruka could read Mina’s expression well enough.  _ Don’t you ever scare me like that again.  _

“Do you show the future?” 

The mirror did not change. Haruka chose to take that as a good sign. 

“Can you show me breaking the curse?”

The image blurred. It showed Haruka’s hand again, this time reaching for Michiru’s claw. She gave a start at the contact, looked afraid, but then light washed over her. As it faded Haruka saw she’d changed to what she must have looked like before, soft and gentle where she had been angular and cold. 

“What are you doing?” Came a hiss from the shadows.

“It showed me breaking the curse!” Haruka set the mirror aside, ready to embrace Michiru. “I came to try, see, I thought maybe you needed to know it’s okay if you like women, and I don’t know if that’s right, but I’m going to do it!” Michiru still did not come forward into the moonlight. “I saw it, I just have to—“

“The mirror only shows you what you want to see.” Michiru’s voice was low. Fear shocked through Haruka’s bones, but she fought it down. “The events it shows will never come to pass.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” Haruka approached her slowly. She just had to take her claw in hand, and then… Her whole arm shook. “I just have to—“

Michiru rushed her as she had the first night, slamming her against the wall, one claw at her neck. “Do you think you know better than me? Do you think you are the first fool to think I could be something else?” Her claw wrapped around Haruka’s throat. “What, you saw a beautiful woman in the mirror,  and now you want her? You think I am something good, if only I did not scare you?”

She tossed Haruka to the floor. 

“I will always scare you. It does not matter if I look like this or what you saw. I am not gentle and I am not kind. Those below me live on my mercy and I will not submit to anyone.” Michiru threw the mirror against the wall. It fell to the ground with a clatter, but did not so much as chip. “You will run, when you realize. I am not grateful for your efforts. I have loved and been loved and it does not matter.”

“But—“

“No.” Michiru struck the table aside. Haruka’s heart raced in her chest. “The people of the town turned against me because they knew what I was. I would not change for them or for love or for anything else. And I will not change for you.” She slithered back towards the door. “I have quite enjoyed your company, but I don’t wish to see you any longer. Keep out of my sight until you friend comes for you.”

Haruka lie on the floor, listening as she retreated. Panic gripped her too much to move. Panic, and pain.

“Oh Haruka,” came Usagi’s voice after a long while. “I told you not to come here.” She lifted Haruka gently, her cool touch easing the tender bruises before they fully formed.

“Have there been others like me?”

“Not many.” She pulled Haruka to lean against her body. It felt like a cloud. “You’ve done more than she expected. I don’t think any girl has tried this hard since she was human.”

“Can’t you tell me what you know?”

Usagi made a small, mournful hum. “Michiru thinks I’m stupid, and Mako tries not to, but she does too. But I can put things together pretty okay, so I know more than I’m supposed to.” She stroked Haruka’s hair with her fingers. “We were all pawns for her, to an extent. She’s genuinely fond of Mako and I, but we’re an anomaly. The townspeople, her suitors, everyone, she cared about only so far as what they could offer her. She wanted more than just a big house in a small town. And her family was so rich, she probably could have gotten it. But the town started to suspect she didn’t care about them, and times were changing. They elected a mayor, and he thought it would be strategic for Michiru to make a sign of goodwill. A marriage.” Usagi chuckled a little. “It’s strange the townspeople liked him, he was just as entitled as our lady. But she rejected him, very publically, and it was not wise to do so.”

“So he cursed her?’

“Oh no,” Usagi shook her head vigorously. “Don’t you know, curses are women’s work.”

“So then…” Haruka puzzled over it for a moment. “Who?”

“I pieced together the rest, so I’m missing details. But like I told you, I know all the places one might have a foray with a suitor in this house. And Michiru hand a small handful, all women.” Usagi tapped her fingers again the floor. “One had a brother, around Michiru’s age. I imagine she offered a marriage to him, to appease the town and so that they might stay together, lest Michiru be driven out.”

“And Michiru turned her down?”

“Our lady would not think any common girl worth that sort of bargain, and she likely said as much.” Usagi sighed. “I want her to think you’re worth it. I don’t know if you can love her, but if she can love you… maybe it would be enough.”

“Will you be free, if she is?”

“I don’t know.” She became solid for a moment. Haruka felt comfort in the warmth of her skin. “I know, sometimes, that time has passed. I don’t know what’s left in the world for us. But I don’t want to stay here.” She faded again. “You can run away, if you want. I would, if I could.”

“I don’t think I could.” Haruka caught Usagi’s translucent hand in hers. “I don’t love her. I don’t know if I can. But sometimes, I kind of like her. And I like you. Someone should fight for you.”

Usagi squeezed her shoulders. “If anyone can fight for us, I think it’s you.”


	7. Chapter 7

Hotaru kept the radio low, humming along to the heavy metal melodies like they were love songs. Rei sat in the passenger seat next to her. She fiddled with a cigarette lighter, despite not seeming the type to smoke, occasionally flicking on the flame with a  _ click! _

Mina sat in the back, listening to the two of them and feeling like a child.

“Question,” she said when she could take it no longer. “The map doesn’t show a road through the woods you pointed, so which one do you think Haruka took?”

“The road that’s not on the map,” Hotaru said.

Rei flicked on the lighter again. “It’s not supposed to be there, but it will be.” She stared at the tiny flame. “Turn off here, Hotaru.” 

Hotaru swung the black car onto the exit. Uneasiness rose in Mina’s stomach. “You’re not just PI’s, are you?”

Hotaru laughed. “What, because Rei’s psychic we can’t be real investigators?” She glanced at Minako in the rearview mirror. “That’s why she didn’t want you along, and why I did. It’s always fun when people figure it out.”

“Hotaru’s hardly normal either,” Rei said, crossing her arms. 

“Rei is a precision hitter. I’ve got broader, vague senses.”

“And that drew you to the forest.”

“And that drew me to the forest!” Hotaru nudged Rei. “She picks up quick, you should get on that.”

While Rei insisted she was not getting on anything, Mina sat back and processed. There had always been stories about people like this, but she’d written them off as old wives tales. Perhaps that hadn’t been wise. She prided herself on knowing the world, being street-smart enough to make it through any situation. And she’d missed something huge. She pressed her hands into the vinyl seat and willed herself to absorb. To recontextualize. Rei used the flame to sense things, probably a form of scrying. Hotaru didn’t need a flame or a mirror, but didn’t get details. There must have been other people in Mina’s life like them. Maybe even who had entirely different sorts of powers.

She sprang forward as far and fast as her seatbelt would allow. “So the witch...”

“Is not real.”

“Might be real,” Hotaru said. “Curses are real, certainly. I threaten Rei with them all the time.”

“You are not a witch.”

“Only because I’ve never tried to be.”

Mina leaned over the center council and craned her neck to look Rei in the eye. “How certain are you the witch isn’t real?”

Rei frowned, huffed, knotted her brow. “... Fifty fifty.”

“Fifty fifty. Really.”

“If she was real, she shouldn’t have lived anywhere near this long. Usagi’s grandma says it was nearing on two hundred years, and--”

“And Teenie’s gran says it wasn’t like anything seen before or after. So we can’t know.”

“Longevity magic is rare.”

“So is magic that could raze a town, but that’s the story.”

It grew dark and the car made its way into a wooded lane. It was only as the trees got thicker and thicker around them that Mina realized they were somewhere they weren't supposed to be. “This is it?”

“Yes.” Rei flicked the flame. 

“I thought it would be harder to find.”

“The key is not to be looking. Places like this like to draw people unawares.” Hotaru brought the car to a slow coast. “Keep an eye out for anything unusual.”

The forest grew darker and darker as they crept along. Mina peered out into the trees, willing Haruka to be camping along the road. She was handy, she’d be fine. God knew she kept enough snacks in her truck to last her a few days. They’d find her sick from living on marshmallows and jerky, but alive and otherwise fine.

But then Mina saw the truck, dark and empty and to all appearances, abandoned. 

“That’s hers!”

Hotaru stopped the car and Rei followed Mina out. She looked at the tires, all intact, and observed no clear damage. Mina pulled at the handle, then reached for her spare key. “It’s a good sign she locked it, right?”

Rei did not confirm.

Mina hopped in and tried the engine. “Out of gas.”

“She probably went to find help.”

“There’s nothing behind us for a long ways,” Mina said. “So she would have pressed ahead.”

Hotaru nodded and locked her car. “We should go on foot, like she would have.”

“You think we’ll find her that way?”

Hotaru shrugged. “It’s either intuition leading me, or my commitment to having the right atmosphere. They’re hard to tell apart sometimes.” She smiled. “You know, when I convinced Rei to lend me money to fill the bar with lamps, I had the same feeling. Thought they might be useful to my powers. Turns out, I just think they’re cool.” 

“I don’t think that was a surprise to you at all.”

“Mm, who can say?” Hotaru clicked on a flashlight. “The universe works in mysterious ways.”

Rei grabbed her own flashlight out of her bag. “She always does this.” She glared at Minako. “You don’t help at all.”

Minako smiled to hide her uneasiness. “Hey, there are ways to get me on your side, if you want—-“

“Ugh!” Rei threw up her hands and stormed ahead past a laughing Hotaru, who turned to give Mina a thumbs up.

“She’s too serious. With the work we do, we gotta—“

Rei stopped and held up a hand. She clicked off her flashlight and motioned for them to come close.

“There’s a house.”

It was, to Mina, a wild understatement. It was a veritable mansion, only short of a castle by a few towers and battlements. 

“The witch’s house.”

Rei smacked Hotaru’s arm. “There is no witch and this is not her house.”

“It just happens to be a big creepy mansion in the middle of nowhere.. Nothing witchy at all about that.” Mina crossed her arms. “Sorry firecracker, I’m with Hotaru on this one.”

“Ooo, firecracker, I like it. We should put that on the business cards.”

“Shut up, both of you.” Rei started towards the house. “We should scope the outside before anything else.”

They followed her around the trees at the perimeter until they came to the back. A balcony jutted out from a high floor. Mina could just make out a lanky figure with blonde hair in the moonlight. 

“Haruka!” She was okay, she looked fine, she—

“Shhh!”

They stayed still and watched. Haruka held something delicately in her hands and stared at it intently, then jerked her head up and set it aside. She spoke, but Mina could not make out the words.

And then something frightening emerged from the shadows.

It looked like a great snake, scales glinting in the moonlight all up its body, but then it twisted into something resembling a human, though not quite there. It lifted Haruka by the shoulders, threw her to the side, and then Minako couldn’t see anything beyond the balcony edge.

“We have to get up there!”

Rei grabbed her shoulder. “If we go in unprepared, it might kill her.”

“And if we don’t go in, it might still kill her!”

“If it hasn’t yet,” Hotaru whispered solemnly, “it has other plans.”

Mina knew Hotaru was right, and she didn’t like it. “So we’re leaving her to be abused?”

“We’re leaving her so we can find what we need to rescue her.” Rei sighed. “Hotaru, we’re going to pay Usagi’s grandma a visit.”

Hotaru held up her phone. “She’s already expecting us.”


	8. Chapter 8

Michiru did not want to be found, yet still Makoto came upon her crying in a dark corner of the cellar. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Yes, I know. You may go.”

“Believe me,” Makoto said, the edge not leaving her voice. “I would love to go. We have been trying to go.”

Michiru stopped crying at once and turned to look at her. She was more solid than she’d been for many years, still translucent around the edges, but unmistakably there.

“We are tied to you. And you won’t even try.”

“I have tried.” Michiru wiped her face. “You think I like this? I have tried and tried, and nothing works.”  _ Nothing, save perhaps misery _ . “Whatever love story you’ve concocted won’t change this.”

“You underestimate our minds and overestimate our affection.” Makoto crossed her arms. “You know what might work, and you have never told us. It’s something that scares you.”

Michiru did not answer. She should have accounted for Makoto piecing something together, eventually. Neither of her remaining ladies were the most intelligent, but Makoto was not so dull as Usagi. 

“I love you, Michiru, I do, but you have kept too much from us. We’ve lost our lives for you, while still having to live.” She stepped up, menacing now that she was more than a ghostly shadow. “Whatever suffering you must do to set us free, I want you to do it.”

Michiru had not felt so small since the change long ago. Mako was tall, and strong, and for all the size and strength her form gave her, Michiru felt a child’s helplessness. “Do you remember Kaori?”

“The herbalist?”

“Yes. She and I… I had my fun with her, and she misunderstood. When everything went sour with the mayor, she thought I might take an interest in marrying her brother, to soothe over whatever wounds I caused and stay with her.”

Mako sighed and put a hand to her head. “And you said no because you didn’t know she was a witch?”

“Of course I knew, she was a  _ herbalist _ . I just never thought she’d… I thought I was too important for that.”

“Oh, Michiru.” Mako sat down cross-legged in front of her. “What was the curse, exactly?”

“She said I would feel as low as I made everyone else feel, and then a hundred times more.” She dared look up at Makoto, expecting contempt. But Mako’s eyes were soft, and she reached for Michiru’s shoulder. For the first time in as many years as Michiru could remember, her touch was warm.

“However much things hurt, you have us on the other side.”

“You were just furious with me.”

“And here I am on the other side.” Mako pulled her into a hug. Michiru sank into her body and willed herself not to cry at the approximation of touch. “You have to try and be open. I know that’s hard.”

Michiru nodded.

“You’ll have to apologize, and know she might not accept it.” Mako let out a derisive huff of a laugh. “She shouldn’t accept it, and you know it.”

“That I do.”

“You really made it hard on yourself.” Mako patted her on the back.

“May I… may I tell you something else I am afraid of?” It was not quite just a fear, but a hope and a shame and a landslide of every emotion Michiru had ever known.

“Of course.”

“What if…” Her sallow cheeks warmed. “What if she does not reject me? What if the curse never breaks, because… because...”

Mako gave her the saddest smile she had ever seen. “Because she comes to love you as you are?”

Michiru nodded and stared at the floor. 

“We’ll have to wait and see, my lady,” she said, and Michiru knew that meant she saw no chance in the matter.

___

In the morning, she did her best to make herself presentable. Makoto combed her hair and wound the greasy strands into a plait coiled and the base of her neck. On the one hand, Michiru felt exposed, every sharp bone held bare to the light, but on the other it was perhaps the only pretty thing she could do with herself, and it made her look a little smaller besides. It would not matter, but she could pretend it did until she was faced with the truth. 

She came upon Haruka sooner than she meant to. Michiru had expected she would be hard to find, after the previous night, but she came down the hall towards her like a woman on a mission.

“Haruka.” Michiru looked at her feet instead of her eyes. “I would like to apologize.”

“So would I.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, I did the one thing you told me not to, didn’t I?” Haruka kicked the toe of her shoe back and forth against the floor. “So I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry. How I reacted was…”  _ Monstrous.  _ “I am…” She squeezed her claws against her scales. “I am exactly this. I am this way because I am like that, not the other way around. You would do well to take your leave of me.”

Haruka did not answer for a long time, but then she whispered. “You do scare me.”

Michiru looked at her, but Haruka looked off into the distance, or at the wall, somewhere Michiru could not meet her eyes.

“You scare me, and sometimes I like you anyway. I don’t know what to do with that.” She hugged her arms around herself. “You were right, last night. I want you to change, so that it would be easier on me.”

“I could never change the way you seek.”

Haruka finally looked at her. “Mina tells me that about girls all the time. But I’m exceptionally stupid.” She half smiled as she said it.

Michiru frowned. “I don’t like that.”

“That I’m stupid?”

“That you insult yourself.”

Haruka smiled fully now. “See, it’s hard to dislike you when you’re such a hypocrite.” She bit her lip. “There’s a thing Mina used to tell me a lot, when I was having a real hard time. She’d say that if I believed the worst of myself, I’d show the worst of myself, and I should cut the bullshit at the source.” She scratched the back of her head. “Easier said than done, but, she was right. Usually is, unfortunately.”

“I do not think there is a better me to show.”

“Well, if you don’t try, there isn’t.” Haruka’s smile faded. “I don’t like being afraid.” She hesitated, and then took a step back. “I’ll see you at dinner, if you want.” She retreated down the hall, likely going as fast as she could without running.

“I’ll try for you,” Michiru said into the space of her absence. “I’m going to try.” Her voice echoed off the walls, leaving her feeling small and exposed with the newly opened cavern of her heart.


	9. Chapter 9

Mina jerked awake as the engine cut out. Rei shook Hotaru awake. Mina did not remember when they’d switched drivers. Mina did not remember how long they’d been driving.

Hotaru grumbled and shoved away Rei’s hand. Her door opened from the other side. “Hoooootaruuuu!”

Nothing but another mumble. Mina craned her neck to see who stood outside-- a woman so tiny she had to be Teenie. She had a shock of pink hair and big combat boots that Mina somehow suspected were stolen from Hotaru. 

Teenie leaned in. “If you don’t wake up you won’t get any of gran’s french toast.”

“I’m not a child, you can’t bribe me with food.”

“And yet it got actual words out of you.” She leaned in to kiss Hotaru’s cheek, then looked past her to Mina in the back seat. “I’m Usagi by the way. Most people call me Teenie. Avoids confusion.”

Mina climbed out of the car and went around to shake her hand properly. “Avoids what confusion?”

“Well, gran liked the story of her gran so much, she named my mom after her. And my mom liked the idea of a legacy of women so…” She shrugged. “It’s better than being called Junior.”

Hotaru emerged from the car and slumped against Teenie’s back. She patted her arms. “We’ve got coffee, too, don’t worry.”

“And your grandmother is here?” Rei asked.

Teenie waved her off. “Yeah yeah, she invited a friend to help you guys, too. Food before business though, Rei. You drove all night.”

“Because we are  _ in a hurry _ .”

“You can’t hurry anywhere if you collapse from exhaustion.” She pulled Hotaru onto a piggy back with surprising ease for someone her size. “You know gran will say the same thing!”

Rei huffed and Teenie carried Hotaru inside. “Someday, I’m going to meet someone who can take things seriously.” She stomped after them, and Mina followed, amusement battling with worry for Haruka. 

The whole house smelled of cinnamon and coffee, warm and rich and inviting. The kitchen was right off the foyer. Mina saw Teenie serving a still half-sleeping Hotaru toast from the stove.

“Please don’t hesitate to help yourselves,” came a voice, deep a stately, from the next room. Mina turned to see a dining room, with two women at the table. One was a handful of decades the other’s junior, with short blue hair and wiry glasses. The other was clearly the one who spoke, and, if Mina had to guess, Teenie’s grandmother, though she would do so only by age. She had a statuesque build, broad shoulders and high cheek bones, even as age had brought lines across her skin. Her dark hair was done up in a bun, and a heavy scarlet blanket was draped across her legs.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said with a slight incline of her head. “You may call me Gran or Setsuna, whichever makes you more comfortable.”

“Thanks, I--”

“I’m Rei, and I have some questions.”

The old woman smiled. “Then please, take a seat. Should I have Teenie bring us coffee?”

“No, I--”

She held up a hand. “Please let your friend speak.”

Mina could not help but feel smug. “I would love some coffee, thank you. I’m Mina, and we’re here because my friend is in trouble.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that, Mina.” She paused a moment. “It is my understanding your friend has been taken by the creature that stole away my grandmother.”

Teenie came in with Hotaru and mugs of coffee in tow. “Overheard,” she said as she sat them down. “And they saw her, Gran. They saw the monster.”

“Did you?” The other woman asked. She pulled out a small tablet with a keyboard. “What did it look like?”

“Scaly,” Mina said at the same time as Rei said “Gaunt.”

“It was a snake and a woman, with claws and great strength,” Hotaru said, head resting on the table. “It threw Mina’s friend like a doll.”

The woman’s brow knotted as she typed. “How close did you see it?”

“Few stories down.” Hotaru yawned. “We were on the ground, they were on a balcony.”

Her blue eyes flashed up. “Was there a mirror?”

“A mirror?”

Setsuna put a hand on the woman’s back. “Pardon my rudeness. This is Professor Ami Mizuno. A former student of mine. She’s been helping me with research into my family history.”

“If you know what to look for, there have been a handful of people gone missing around that forest, dating back to shortly after Setsuna’s grandmother was supposedly taken. A smaller handful of injured people have emerged unwilling to detail how they were hurt.” Ami looked up, serious. “And one survivor has a diary, archived by the university she came to work at after. It sat in the library for nearly a century before they digitized their collection.”

Setsuna smiled. “Professor Mizuno understands computers more than an old lady like me can comprehend.”

“All I had to do was perform a simple database keyword search using…” Ami trailed, catching Setsuna’s blank smile. “Anyways, one Taiki Kou was taken as your friend has been, and barely escaped with her life.”

“How did she do it?” Mina leaned forward, hoping to glimpse whatever was on Ami’s screen.

“Her two sisters scaled the walls and entered through the very balcony you saw, attacking the monster as it slept. One was apparently a very talented gunslinger.” 

Rei crossed her arms. “If that’s true how is it still alive?”

Ami cleared her throat and began to read. “I ran into the beast’s chambers at the sound of gunshots. Seiya stood at point-blank range,  the monster crumpled in her bed. Yaten proclaimed her dead, but I knew better. Her eyes met mine. She was vindicated by the violence, I am sure. There is a woman inside the monster, but I am just as certain that there was always a monster inside the woman. She will tell the next girl to wander in that she acts upon the world as the world acts upon her. The same ghost that healed me upon my arrival will heal her, and this cycle will continue unto eternity.”

Ami pressed her lips together. “In previous entries, she expressed a hope that the monster could be tamed. She was not successful.”

“God knows Haruka is dumb enough to try the same thing.”

“That may very well keep her alive long enough for you to rescue her.” Ami shut her tablet. “The Kou sister’s approach was clever, but it is unlikely to work twice. The monster is likely to suspect intrusion through the balcony.”

“So we try a window,” Rei said.

“Hmmm.” Hotaru sat up and took a long drink of coffee. “We’ll have better luck with a distraction.” She met Mina’s eyes with a smile.

“You know, I have always wanted to be an actress.”

“Absolutely not.”

“We won’t be able to sneak up on the monster otherwise.”

“She’s a civilian.”

“So, may I say, are you,” Setsuna cut in gently. “A few business cards and a secretarial job does not an official member of the police force make.”

Rei scowled at Hotaru. “How does she know that?”

“I talk to my future in-laws.”

“We deal with classified information.”

“And I keep that a secret just fine.” Hotaru yawned. “Sending Minako in is our best shot. She has a genuine motive to go looking, and I’m sure she can come across quite harmless.”

“You’ll need supplies,” Ami said. “Weapons. The beast cannot be wounded to incapacitation easily.”

“I know a guy.”

“I haven’t agreed to any of this!”

The whole table turned to face Rei. 

She paused, but then rose from her seat. “You know what, I said I’d find your friend, and I did. I’ll send you an invoice for my services, which I hope you will survive long enough to pay. I will not participate in sending you on a suicide mission.”

“Aw, Rei, have you come to care—“

“Fuck off.”

She exited, and soon after they heard the car start and drive off.

Teenie shrugged. “Guess I’ll give you guys a ride.”

Hotaru sighed. “She has trouble with this stuff. Can’t admit when she’s scared.”

“It’s a hard thing,” Setsuna said gently. She turned to Minako. “Are you afraid?”

“Well, yeah. But Haruka being trapped with that thing scares me even more.”

“You are very brave.” Setsuna smiled. “Do not let me keep you, I believe you all have work to do.”

Hotaru and Teenie gave her a kiss on each cheek and headed to Teenie’s suitably tiny car. Minako climbed into the back seat, fighting down the worry that, brave as she may be, Rei might have had more sense than any of them.


	10. Chapter 10

Haruka found a perch in the dining room hours before she expected Michiru to come. She did not want any surprise encounters. Situated on an oversized windowsill, she played with the tassels on the end of the big velvet curtain and tried to sort herself out. 

She kept coming up against the same things-- she was stupid for wanting to try, but she had to. Not just for Usagi and Mako, but because there was something in her that had to know what and who Michiru could be. She took out her phone. She pressed power just in case, by magic or luck, it might suddenly turn on and let her make a call. The screen stayed black. Haruka cradled it against her stomach and leaned into the window. She needed Mina as much as she ever had, maybe more. Mina was sometimes her only gage of how stupid she was being. Mina let her know the difference between the stupid she had to be to find things out on her own-- “ _You? Wanna try having a one night stand?_ _Oh, man. Oh Haruka_.”-- and the sort of stupid that was dangerous-- “ _You can’t keep doing this, I refuse to get a call that you wrapped your car around a telephone poll because some douche revved his engine at you.”_

Haruka was not always great at seeing the difference alone.

Haruka also suspected Mina would not say what she wanted to hear.

Sometimes, being afraid made her more stupid. She ran towards a scary thing instead of away, until someone pulled her back. Just this time, someone was pulling her in. 

She heard Michiru outside the door before she saw her, pacing yet again. She was early too, judging by the light in the window.

A thought struck Haruka. She pulled the curtain back in place and watched the room through the small gap between it and the wall.

Michiru came in slowly, peeking through the door side to side to see if anyone was there. Her whole body loosened when she saw no one. She slid over to the table to survey Haruka’s food choice of the day-- pizza, though Haruka had picked the weird, apparently authentic kind a girlfriend had showed her once, where instead of full cheesy goodness there were just little circles. Haruka had been appalled, but it seemed like it might be more to Michiru’s taste.

Haruka watched that tiny smile cross her face, and wondered-- was it how she looked or what she could do that made her frightening? Haruka did not feel scared watching from afar. She made herself look at Michiru, not averting her eyes from any part. Her hair was still done up in a limp but tight bun, braided and wrapped around itself. From the shoulders up, she might have been an ordinary, sickly person. And her arms were no different, until you got to her fingers and they morphed to claws at the last knuckle. Her body bore no curves, only straight lines beneath scales until it tapered into the end of her tail. 

The more Haruka looked, the more at ease she felt. If Michiru did not lash out again, Haruka might be able to get comfortable. Michiru only looked monstrous if you didn’t look at her, if you let details surprise and shock you. Looking at her now, Haruka saw a person. Maybe still a frightening person, given what she could do and had done, but a person. 

Michiru began pacing again. She gestured with her claws, reached up to her hair before thinking better of it and shaking her head. Haruka wondered what she was thinking.

And without thinking it through, she asked. 

Michiru gave a start and knocked over a chair. She looked to Haruka’s window with furry and, Haruka recognized for the first time, fear. “What are you doing?”

“I came here to think a bit, and then you came in.” Haruka’s muscles tensed, prepared to run.

For a moment Michiru looked ready to attack, but then she shrunk into herself. “Am I such a spectacle to you?”

“No.” Haruka took a chance and slid down. “It’s just that, if I look at you, you don’t seem so scary. So that seems like my part of things, you know. I gotta try and meet you halfway.”

“You don’t.” Michiru turned away. “It’s not your job to try and do whatever you think will help.”

“Well, I’m going to anyway. I want to be your friend.”

A nearly inaudible laugh came from Michiru. “That’s very admirable. I will try and do my part as well.”

“You did good, just now.”

She barked a real laugh now. “Oh, I have set the bar low, haven’t I?”

“We’ll raise it as we go.” Haruka braved a step closer. She did not look away from the scales and claws. “I’ve done a lot of bad stuff too. I had to learn a lot.”

“I’ve had a lot more time than you to learn.”

“Hey, remember what I said?” Another step. “We gotta believe we can do better, and make the choice to follow through.”

Michiru looked back at her over her shoulder. “Believing is easier said than done.”

“You’ve got someone already believing in you, though.” Without thinking, Haruka reached out and touched Michiru’s elbow.

If MIchiru had looked afraid before, she now appeared filled with terror. Haruka may as well have been holding her beating heart in her hand, rather than resting her fingertips on her bony arm. Her own heart rammed hard against her ribs. For a long moment, the whole world was frozen in their locked eyes. 

And then Michiru pulled away, gliding halfway across the room. “I don’t…” She cradled her elbow with her other hand.  “I…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t be.” Michiru straightened and stiffened her posture. “Your choice for dinner tonight intrigues me. Perhaps taste has not been entirely abandoned this century.”

Haruka smiled and followed her tone shift. “I felt bad, making you try so much junk. This seemed to have a chance of you at least not hating it.”

“We will have to see.” She took a seat, and when Haruka sat just one chair away, she did not move.

It was progress, Haruka was sure. As they began to eat, she felt a warmth spread inside her from something more than the food. 


	11. Chapter 11

Michiru had never courted a woman. She had been courted, she had extended invitations to meet in dark corners, she had taken pleasure without giving any of herself away. Haruka was not someone you took into a dark corner and had your way with. Or at least, you did not only do that. If Michiru was going to open herself to Haruka, she had to do it properly.

She went out to the garden with paper and string. For once, her claws could be useful. Mako and Usagi, she knew, looked on from high windows. She could feel their gaze and was grateful they could not leave the house, even for the walled garden. Part of her— a very large part— felt deeply embarrassed by her actions. The great Lady Kaioh, harvesting flowers like some common gardener! The great Lady Kaioh, not only deigning to give a gift, but  _ making _ a gift with her own hands.

She was above this.

She was above the dirt and bugs and the sun beating upon her back. She was above every marred petal and wilting bud she sifted through. She was above working for anyone’s affections. 

And yet, when she found the first perfect rose and plucked it from the bush, a wave of happiness crashed through her chest. She was not above Haruka’s smile. Perhaps she was not above anything that might bring it around.

The longer she took and the more flowers she found, the better she felt. She tried to remember what Haruka had been drawn to when they walked together. Roses, of course, and, peonies. She’d even liked the little cornflowers, common as they were. Michiru used them for a spray of color, dark blue punctuating the soft pinks. She arranged them best she could, wrapping the paper gently so as to not rip it, and tying the string into the prettiest bow she could manage. 

She held it out to examine her work, and every good feeling forsook her. It looked like a child’s work, something a young boy of common taste might pick for his mother. It was not worthy of Michiru and it certainly was not worthy of Haruka.

Her grip tightened, she tensed to throw it away. But that impulse made her sadder still. Haruka deserved beautiful things, and perhaps this was not a beautiful thing but it was the closest Michiru had to offer. It felt wrong to put her shame before Haruka’s joy, however small it might be at such a garish offering.

She reentered the house as quietly as she could, checking around every corner before she emerged. She could compromise— she would leave the flowers at Haruka’s bedside, and she could think it was merely the magic of the house that brought them rather than Michiru’s own hand. Perhaps they would make her smile anyway. 

Luck brought Michiru to Haruka’s room unspotted. The bed was half-made, covers thrown over the mattress but untucked and unsmoothed. Michiru remembered the state of her own chamber, as Haruka had seen it, and felt shame. She propped her bouquet up on the pillows and turned to go.

“Oh, you can come in my room but I can’t go in yours?”

Michiru froze. Haruka leaned against the doorway. “I apologize, I—“

Haruka smiled. She was  _ teasing _ . Michiru could not think of anyway to respond. 

“I will go.”

“Wait.” Haruka stepped up to the bed. “Are those… for me?”

“Yes,” Michiru said, feeling warm. “They’re not…. I would have liked to have done better, for you.”

Haruka lifted them to look, her cheeks very red. Michiru worried she might be angry, but she turned the bouquet in her hands in a way that Michiru could only call reverent. “Did you pick them? For me?”

Michiru wished she had been turned into something very small, that she might have the ability to turn an hide beneath a chair or a blanket. “I did, I tried to remember what you liked and I did not do well, forgive me.”

“They’re beautiful.” Haruka buried in nose within the paper and stayed there. “This might sound silly,” she said, her voice muffled and thick, “but no one’s ever given me flowers.”

“Well, you need not count this, if you’d like your first time to be better.”

“Michi.” Haruka laughed, but then she stiffened. “I mean, Michiru. I love them, thank you.”

“I wanted to leave them so you wouldn’t know it was me.” Michiru ran her claws along the back of her knuckles. 

Haruka shook her head and smiled. “You are incomprehensible sometimes.”

“I only wanted to do something nice.”

“Thank you.”

The bedroom was very small, Michiru noticed now, though it had seemed spacious before. The walls were so close, and so was Haruka. There was nowhere for either of them to look but each other. And Haruka was looking, and Michiru could not read her. She was no longer teasing. Her smile was soft and her eyes were too.  Michiru could not fathom the softness. It felt to her like falling through clouds, there was nothing to grasp onto and nothing to break momentum. 

“Your hands are still dirty,” Haruka said. She reached out but stopped short of touching her. 

“I should have washed before coming in, I—“

“No, it’s just… It’s nice that someone like you would get dirty, especially just to bring me flowers.”

Michiru leaned towards Haruka, thinking of letting her take her dirty hand, thinking of how this moment would go if she were not a monster. Their eyes met, and for a moment Michiru felt the moment would go that way despite everything she was. 

But it could not. She straightened her posture. “I should wash now, though. It is hardly becoming of a lady to go about with soiled hands.”

“Okay.”

Michiru hurried from the room, but in a glance back she saw Haruka sit on her bed, still admiring the flowers. Still smiling. For an instant Michiru forgot the curse, forgot every selfish reason she had for courting Haruka, and all she could think of was finding more ways to get that smile. 


	12. Chapter 12

Haruka did her best to be reasonable. Flowers were a single gesture. Flowers did not make Michiru any different, they did not mean she had changed.

And yet Haruka felt that they meant exactly that. She could not imagine the Michiru who had been cursed, the MIchiru Usagi had described, working in the garden for anyone. She rolled back onto her bed and rested the flowers on her chest. She’d always wanted to get flowers from a girl. She’d always wanted to be wooed. But she loved too fast and too hard most of the time, and trying to play coy got her nothing at all. 

The scent of the roses wafted over her like a blanket. How strange to be pursued. How nice. It hardly mattered that Michiru was cursed. A woman of her class, thinking Haruka was something special? Haruka laughed at herself. She was an absolute sucker. One bouquet, and she was over the moon. 

She traced the petals with her fingers, blushing at the supple soft feel of them. What would it feel like, to touch Michiru’s cheek like this? Would she be rough against Haruka’s hand? Would it matter?

Haruka felt a tug and and ache and she sat up quickly. She was not… it wasn’t like that. But one good gesture deserved another, surely. She should plan something. Something just as big as Michiru digging around in the dirt. She thought of their garden walk, and the things they talked about.

If Michiru could step down for Haruka, perhaps Haruka could step up for her. 

She placed the flowers gently on her pillow and stood. She would need help, for something big. 

“Usagi?” She called down the hall.

“You like the flowers, don’t you?”

Haruka turned to see Usagi’s shadow bouncing like an excited child. “Yeah, was that your idea?”

“No,” Usagi said, “I would not have thought it was a suggestion my lady would take well.”

The notion that it was all Michiru made Haruka smile. 

“She hasn’t been like this before.”

“I want to do something for her in return. But I can’t do it alone.” Haruka took a deep breath. “I want to show her I can do something on her level. I want… I mean, it won’t be the same without people. But, when she was human, she had balls here, right?”

Usagi stopped bouncing. Somehow, that made her excitement even clearer. “You want to throw a ball?”

“It won’t be much, I’ve never even been to a dance, and you don’t have to know how to dance for those these days, but I thought it could still be…”

Color seeped in around Usagi’s edges. “Romantic?”

“Maybe, yeah.”

“Oh Haruka!” Usagi hugged her with such force that her translucent arms went halfway through Haruka’s stomach and gave her shivers. “This is more than I ever dreamed of.”

“It’s nothing. She’s just… nice, when she tries. So I want to be nice back.”

Usagi snorted. “This is more than nice, Haruka.” She pulled away. “The house should be able to make music, functions like that stayed even without people to carry them out.”

“I’ll need you to convince her to come.”

“That may be hard. But I’ll do it. When—“

“Tonight.” She didn’t want to lose her nerve. “Before dinner.”

“I have to get going, then.” She took a step, then launched into another hug. “Thank you, Haruka.” She glided off down the hall, humming.

_____

Haruka regretted the idea as soon as she faced the wardrobe. She’d never been good at dressing up. And she couldn’t even dance. She was going to launch Michiru right back to superiority, she would see that Haruka certainly was not worth anything. The wardrobe showed her a variety of menswear styles, some from Michiru’s era, some from the present, and Haruka felt absurd even looking at them. She could hardly even think of actually wearing anything she saw.

“The navy would look sharp.” 

Haruka jumped. Mako leaned against the doorway.

“Does it help to know she’s agonizing over if she can wear anything?”

Haruka hadn’t thought of it. “I’m sorry.”

Mako stood straight, intimidating even while incorporeal. “If you’re playing a game—“

“I’m not.”

“If you’re playing a game, you have to play it a little longer. Michiru is really falling for you.”

Haruka turned and pretended to look through the clothes. She did not think she could hide that the thought made her happy. “I don’t—“

“Here.” Mako came up behind her and grabbed a navy jacket with princely silver buttons. “You’ll make her heart jump.”

Haruka looked at Mako, wishing she had more details to read her expression from. “I’m confused.”

Mako sighed. “I love Michiru, I don’t want to see her hurt.” She cocked her head. “I’m in half a mind to threaten you. But I’m also tired.” She pressed her hands together, and then through one another. “I want you to do what you will, so we might move on.”

“Usagi said if she liked me, that itself might be enough.”

“She knows more than I give her credit for.” She sat on the edge of Haruka’s bed. “It was hardest on her. Even compared to Michiru. She had a  _ baby _ . We should have denounced our lady and saved ourselves.” She faced Haruka, face stern in what few features she had. “I want you to go, if you get the chance. Don’t make our mistake.”

Haruka hesitated. Her mind told her Mako was right. Her heart protested. But she had to try and be reasonable. “I promise.”

“Thank you.” She looked at the wardrobe. “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”

“Not a clue.” Haruka laughed at herself. “I’m kind of hoping the idea is charming enough that it won’t matter.” 

“Let Michiru lead. And don’t look at your feet.” Mako put a hand on Haruka’s shoulder. “You’re going to do good.”

Haruka smiled, but she had a foreboding sense that they had different ideas of what good meant.

 


	13. Chapter 13

This had been easy, once upon a time. Michiru had dressed effortlessly, descended into a crowd of hundreds, and found those nights on the whole boring. But tonight, it had taken great labor by her and Makoto and Usagi to find something she could wear, and she trembled to think of standing before one person. She couldn’t do this, she was too--

_ If you believe the worst of yourself, you’ll show the worst of yourself. _

She took a deep breath. She would try, for Haruka. She had to try. Makoto had done brilliantly with the dress, ripping out seams and sewing it anew so the skirt wrapped closer to her body and did not get pulled by the movement of her tail. She’d padded the cap sleeves, to make Michiru’s shoulders less severe, and twined her hair around her head with streaks of gold thread. There was nothing to be done about the claws, or the tail.

She did not look pretty. Michiru stared into the mirror. She did, however, look better than she ever had in this form. Perhaps that might be enough for Haruka to not rescind her offer of a dance. 

Mako took her hand and led her to the ballroom, just as she had countless times before. 

“You went to her,” Michiru whispered, knowing Makoto would understand the question.

“She did not know what to wear.”

A lie by omission, Michiru was sure, but she forced a smile anyway. “She would look handsome in anything.”

Makoto gave a small huff of a chuckle. “Haruka would be as hard to convince on that as you would be.” She sighed. “She seems…” But then she shook her head, and for once Michiru could not read her. 

The first long-traveling notes of music made her way to her. The slow rise of the violin wove fear into her bones.

“This is a mistake.”

“No, my lady, I will carry you in there if I have to.”

“The last ball I attended…”  _ I publically humiliated a man and set the board for my own defeat.  _

“This is nothing like that,” Mako said. “Nothing you say will convince me to let you turn around.”

“Who is who’s lady, Makoto?”

Makoto stopped. “You are lucky, Michiru, that neither Usagi or I have the same cruel streak as you.” She again became more solid, and tightened her grip. “I believe we are long past our notions of servitude and nobility. We have cared for you long past what was ever expected of us.”

Michiru looked down. “I apologize. If… If I manage to break the curse, you are free to go.”

“I don’t want to abandon you, I just want to be your friend. Your equal.”

Michiru looked at her, wondering for the first time if that had been her wish all these years, from when she first came to the house as a young girl, rather than some attempt for social climbing. “Your friendship is not a gift I am worthy of,” she said carefully, “but I will accept it gladly.”

Makoto smiled, pulled her had and gave her a twirl. “You can still dance,” she said, less stern now.

“Well, I haven’t lost  _ everything _ .”

She laughed. “Let’s get you to the ball, Michiru.”

The music grew louder, and then they came to the doors. Makoto raised Michiru’s clawed hand to her mouth and kissed it with ghost-feather lips. “Good luck, my lady. My friend.”

Michiru took a deep breath, and then pushed inside.

Makoto had brought her to the balcony entrance. She slid over to the banister. Haruka stood near the foot of the stairs, miming a dance she clearly did not know. Michiru’s breath caught. Haruka was dressed like the military men of Michiru’s day, though she lacked the severity and bravado. She was a painting, a dream, a sculpting of all a woman should be, handsome and good and brave. Michiru would be content to watch her forever.

She turned in her dance and noticed Michiru. She immediately dropped her arms.

Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. Music tangled around them, pulling the tension tighter and tighter. Someone had to do something. Someone had to be brave.

Haruka had been brave enough. Michiru dared make a start for the staircase.

Haruka followed her with her eyes. Despite the feel of her body conforming to the shape of every stair, Michiru did not feel ugly or monstrous. She felt as though this were any other time she had entered a ball, except now she entered it for someone. She descended, the music rose, and it was all for Haruka. Nothing else mattered.

Haruka’s cheeks were pink when she reached the bottom. “You, um. You look nice.”

“You don’t have to say that,” Michiru said. She drew her arms around herself. “We don’t have to do this at all.”

“I wanted to thank you for the flowers.”

“And you have.”

Haruka bit her lip. “I also wanna dance with you, even though I don’t know how.”

_ Why? _ But she could not bare to ask. She wanted things Haruka could not give her, that it would be unfair to ask. But she wanted, deep as the sea.

So she curtsied as best she could, and offered her hand. Haruka looked alarmed. Fear rose in Michiru’s throat, of course Haruka would not take her hand, of course Haruka had not thought through dancing enough to realize it meant touching, how could she ever choose to touch such an abhorrent creature. 

But then Haruka did a wobbly cursy of her own, looking up to Michiru in askance.

Michiru almost wanted to laugh. “If you’re leading, you bow rather than curtsy.”

“Oh…” Haruka righted herself. “Makoto said to follow you.”

“I see.” Michiru had never in her long life danced the lead, though she knew the steps well enough. “Then, yes, you curtsy, keep your feet steady… good.” With all the courage she could find in her small heart, Michiru bowed and accepted her hand. 

“The follow sets the distance between dancers,” Michiru said. Haruka’s eyes met hers, and she stepped in very close. 

“Where do I put my other hand?” Michiru could feel the tickle of her breath.

“Here.” She guided her to her shoulder. “And may I…?” She hovered her own hand above the small of Haruka’s back.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Michiru trembled. No woman had let her be so close since the change. Others had had the idea to woo her into submission, to tame the monster with love so as to make their escape, but none had been able to follow through on letting something so horrible touch them. But Haruka did not pull away. She did not flinch as Michiru’s claws pressed into the fine weave of her jacket. She did not take her smooth warm hand from Michiru’s rough and clammy counterpart.

She smiled instead. “You have to promise not to laugh at me, okay?”

Michiru would not dream of it. She was hardly superb herself, lacking feet. The music swelled, and she concentrated on swaying her body to approximate steps. Haruka stumbled along, working just as hard, it seemed, to not look at her feet.

“You are doing very well.”

“Really? I think I’m not.”

“You said you did not attend your balls, did you not? Having no experience, you must be a natural.”

Haruka snorted. “Now you’re being too nice.”

“No one could ever be too nice to you.”

The song slowed to its end, the echos of musicians long gone caught their breath before launching into another— something softer, more romantic.

“Are you sure this is alright?”

“It was my idea.”

“Yes, but…” Michiru loosened her grip. “I don’t think you thought through that you’d have to touch me.”

“I’m not that stupid,” Haruka said, a laugh on the edge of her voice. “And you’re not nearly as scary as you think you are, once the surprise wears off.”

“Scary or not, I’m… You ought to dance with a woman. A real one.”

“And I am.” Haruka pulled her a little closer. She moved her hand down to Michiru’s back, and Michiru felt her take the lead instinctively. Haruka knew no real steps, but they glided along to the rhythm as naturally as they might wade through the soft tides of the sea.

She was in Haruka’s hands now, fully, rawly. Truly, deeply. She could be lifted or she could be crushed. Michiru had nothing left to guard herself. Her shell was cracked, broken open, no words, no scales nor claws, could keep Haruka from finding her cold little heart and doing what she would with it. 

Michiru looked into Haruka’s eyes, her beautiful, life-giving eyes, and tried to find the catch, tried to find the fear or the abhorrence that would prove this all a farce. She saw only kindness, and, if she dared let herself believe, affection. 

Michiru wanted to believe. Michiru wanted to nurture whatever might have grown in Haruka’s heart into something bigger. Something that could make her smile every day. 

With only a moment’s hesitation, she slid her body down, letting her dress drag against the floor until she was the height she’d been as a human, and then rested her head against Haruka’s chest. It did not matter that her hair would leave grease marks on the jacket, that Haruka could pull away at any moment and break her. For once in her life, Michiru wanted to be as small and vulnerable. 

Haruka stopped dancing. Michiru braced herself for the harsh storm of rejection. 

Instead, she felt Haruka wrap her arms tight around her. Michiru could not help but wince as her chin rested on the top of her head.

“It’s nice to hold you.”

“That can’t be true.”

“It is, Michiru, and one day you’ll believe me.”

Michiru swallowed hard. “Are you imagining me as you saw in the mirror? Can you bear to touch me because you can invision me with the curse broken?”

Haruka pulled away just enough to look at her. “No, I see you.”

“I do not understand.”

“Michi, I think…” She withdrew one hand to scratch nervously at the back of her head. “I mean, I know. I know I like—“

Michiru wanted. She wanted so badly, and yet fear dragged sharp as her own claws through her belly. “No.”

“No?”

“You can’t, I’m not… Why would you?”

“Because you’re a person!” Haruka gripped her shoulders. “And I like being around you, and when you try to do nice things, you make me really happy.”

“I’ve done far more cruel things than kind ones.”

“And I forgive you.” She stepped close again. “I’m not saying… I can’t promise anything, not yet. I’m trying to be reasonable for once in my life.  But I like you.”

Michiru let herself be held. She let herself be small. “I’ve felt affection for you from the night you arrived. You’re…” She swallowed the fear. “You’re something extraordinary.”

“So are you.” Haruka traced small circles against Michiru’s sleeves. “It’s kind of amazing someone like you would like someone like me.”

“Haruka, I’m a monster.”

“Yeah but like, a classy one.”

Michiru laughed, and then tears stung at her eyes. She looked down to hide them. Haruka had not tried to deny what she was. Perhaps Haruka did see her. Perhaps things she wanted were not the most impossible ideas.

“Michi… would it be okay if… Um, could I try…”

Michiru looked up, unwilling to make a guess at what Haruka might ask, though her heart pounded ahead of her at a sprinter’s pace. The music had grown ever softer, it caressed them like a soft blanket, wrapping them close.

Haruka bit her lip and cast her eyes lower on MIchiru’s face. They couldn’t… and yet...

And then, from out of the room and down the hall, a bang against the front door cut through the song. 

“Hello? Haruka?”

“That’s Mina!” Haruka said, her face lighting up as she pulled away. “Oh, I can’t wait for you to meet her.” She ran to the door.

Michiru stared after her. She ought to have known by now, that reality would have to crash in. There were no fairy tales for monsters like her. 


	14. Chapter 14

Hotaru stopped the car and turned to Mina. “Are you sure about this? There’s still time to back out.”

“I should be saying that to you. I’ve got the reason to be here.”

“Please, this is too cool for me to back out now.” But she hesitated with her hand on the door handle, staring ahead. “You think there’s any chance Teenie’s great gran is still in there somehow?”

“It would hardly be the weirdest thing in this scenario.” Minako squinted at Hotaru in the dark. “Is that why you’ve been so interested in my case?”

“Nah, I hardly even believed the whole thing until we were here. I just like to annoy Rei.” She grinned. “But since it is real… it would be nice if they got a little closure, one way or another.”

“Well, what’s better closure than killing the damn monster?” Mina opened her door. “Let’s do this.”

As soon as Hotaru disappeared around the corner to sneak in, Mina’s bravado deserted her. They’d decided she was safer unarmed, in case the monster would notice. She had nothing to protect her but natural charm. She had a lot of it, but faced with the big oak door in the dark, it didn’t feel like enough. 

Minako knocked hard anyway, and then pushed her way inside. “Hello?” She yelled. Her voice echoed against the walls and made her feel small. “Haruka?”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

The voice sounded close, but Minako saw nothing.

“Come back later, tomorrow. Not now.”

Minako whipped her head, trying to find the voice. The entrance hall was empty, she was alone. 

“Quick, go,  _ please _ .”

She saw it— the faintest outline of a person. “You don’t scare me.” 

“I’m not trying to. Haruka is busy, so—“

Mina punched the ghost, just to try it. Her fist went straight through, like she’d swung at a cold patch of mist. 

“You’re going to ruin everything,” said the ghost, Mina’s hand still in her face. She disappeared completely. 

“Mina!” Haruka burst into the room, dressed like some old-timey dignitary. Any other time, Minako would be unable to resist a jab, but now she was filled with dread. “I knew you’d find me.” She tackled her into a hug before she could respond.

Mina gasped for breath. “You’re okay?” 

“I’m great, but my phone died and my truck ran out of gas, I’m sorry if you worried.”

“I—“

There it was. It stood in the doorway, watching them like prey. The monster was even worse when you could see the length of its claws and the texture of its scales. It liked dress up, it seemed— it was wrapped in some approximation of a dress that only highlighted the wrong angles of its body— and that struck Mina as horrifically perverse.

“Haruka,” she whispered, tugging her towards the door. 

“Oh, of course!” Haruka let go and turned around. “Mina, this is Michiru. Michiru, this is Mina.”

The monster locked eyes with her and inclined its head. “Haruka has told me so much about you.”

“Only bad things, I hope.” She put a hand on Haruka’s shoulder. “We should get going.”

“But—“

“I’m in a rental car, I have to return it in the morning,” Mina lied quickly. “I didn’t think my baby would make the trip.”

“That’s why you should let me take a look at it—“

“Haruka.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

The monster’s eyes flicked over.  _ One move, and I’ll take you down, unarmed or not. _ But the thing stayed still. “It’s rather late,” it said quietly. “If you wanted to stay and leave in the morning…”

“Too far, sorry.”

The monster frowned. Haruka went to her, grabbing her shoulders. “Hey, I’m gonna come back, don’t worry.”

_ Like hell _ . But that was a fight for after they’d driven away.

“I’ll get a good tank of gas and I’ll visit on weekends.” She put her hand in her hair. “God, the shop must be falling apart without me.”

“I promised I wouldn’t keep you.”

“And I’m promising I’m coming back.” Haruka squeezed the monster’s claws. “Okay, can I change quick?” She asked Mina, “My clothes are upstairs.”

“Yeah, buddy, go ahead.”

The monster’s gaze returned to her as Haruka left. “You have no intention of letting her return, do you?”

“Nope.”

“Mm.” The monster looked down. “That’s for the best.” It slithered back a few paces. “She was never mine to keep. Tell her I have no wish to see her.” It retreated further. “I beg your pardon, but I must go. It was a pleasure to meet you.” The monster turned and left.

“Michiru, wait!” The ghost from before reappeared, this time taking more form. It was short and blonde and the slightest bit familiar in a way Mina could not place. She turned on Mina. “They were so close, she was so close.” She pushed at Mina’s shoulder, more solid now but too weak to carry her malice. 

Mina felt uneasy as the ghost began to cry. She wasn’t sure what was worse, if the monster was staging a counter-show to her diversion, or if everything playing out was genuine. Mina had been expecting a fight. Mina had been expecting a possessive monster, a violent monster, the one she had seen on the balcony. This was wrong. This was all wrong. 

“Okay,” Haruka said, reemerging in her jeans. “I—“ She stopped. “Usagi? What’s wrong?”

The ghost launched itself at Haruka. “You have to go after her! She doesn’t want you to leave.”

_ That  _ was the behavior Mina had expected. Perhaps this was an act after all, the monster putting her words in another’s mouth to appear sympathetic. 

“I’m not leaving forever, Usagi, Michiru knows that.”

“Ask  _ her _ if you’re coming back.” The ghost pointed at Mina. “She’s gonna take you away and we’re going to be alone here forever.”

“Usagi,” another ghost appeared, tall and commanding. “We can’t keep Haruka here.”

“Mina,” Haruka said slowly. “You can’t stop me from coming back.”

“We’ll be okay either way, Haruka,” said the second ghost. “Remember what you promis—“

“She has to stay!”

“No, Usagi, she has to go.”

“We can talk about it later, Haruka,” Mina said over the din of the ghosts. “Right now I just want to get you home safe.”

“I’m already safe.”

“I saw her hurt you,” Mina hissed. “I saw—“

“She’s changed.”

“It hasn’t even been a week, no one changes—“

A gunshot shocked them all to silence.

“We have to go.” Mina grabbed Haruka’s arm, but she yanked it away.

“What did you do?”

“Another conversation for the car. Now please, let’s just—“

Haruka ran, not away but back toward the monster. One of the ghosts tackled Mina from behind. Mina fell, her breath rushing out of her all at once. “How could you?”

“Usagi—“

“No, Mako, Michiru was going to fall in love and we were going to be free and now it’s all ruined.”

“Usagi,” that larger ghost said. “If Michiru is hurt, you’re needed.”

It got off Mina, but not without a final wail.

Mako knelt at Mina’s side as Usagi left. “Are you alright?”

Mina grunted. “Fuck off.”

The ghost huffed. “Get up, then, and get your friend out of here. Whatever you have to do, do it.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.” Mina pushed up from the ground. It didn’t matter what was an act and what was real. She was taking Haruka home. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm doing a midweek double update, to bring AO3 to the same place as tumblr before the last few chapters come out. :)

Michiru was in two minds as she left Minako alone in the entryway-- one to go somewhere she would not be found, and one to go somewhere she could. The later won out, her stupid heart clinging to its stupid hope, and she fled to her chambers.

Haruka would not come after her.

She would let her go.

It was the right thing, but it was not the thing Michiru wanted. No, as she entered the chamber, she wanted Haruka more than anything. Damn the curse and damn breaking it, for a moment none of it had mattered, and perhaps she had learned nothing after all for that desire consumed her. Her heart raged against its confines, go to her, fight for her, show her you are worthy.

 _But I am not worthy._ She picked up a shard of mirror off the floor. Misery loved no company more than its own face.

In the reflection, she saw the gun seconds before it went off.

Fragments of her mind scattered around the pain. First, her unfailing superiority, marvelling that the shooter had the opportunity for a headshot and instead hit her scale-protected shoulder, where she didn’t even have to rely on Usagi to heal. Second, confusion. It was not Minako in her doorway. Haruka had only mentioned Minako. This was another woman, short dark hair, pale skin. Knowing eyes.

Third-- rage. Pure, vindictive rage. This woman would hurt for this.

Michiru slid her body to the ground, one hand on her bleeding shoulder, and waited. The woman stepped up, trigger finger at the ready for another shot. “All this pain you’ve caused,” she said, more venom in her voice than Michiru had expected. “And it’s this easy to be rid of you?”

Michiru tried to piece that together. Poisonous tendrils of despair wound their way around her heart. This woman was unsurprised to see her. This woman was prepared. This woman knew far too much on what to expect.

Michiru had been set up. It was too obvious in hindsight. No one, and most certainly not someone like Haruka, would ever be gentle towards her without some hidden motive.

She wanted to scream, or cry, but instead she asked, voice low, “How did she tell you about me?” There had been a clever woman, once, who’d found a way to use the forest birds as carrier pigeons. Another had tried to paint a distress message on the wall outside her window, though she had been caught.

“There are stories about you,” the woman said. “And now that we’ve found you, there won’t be any more.”

That would be true. Michiru would never open her doors or her heart again. But she would not give this sneak the satisfaction of killing her.

She was a beast, after all. What could a beast do but fight to survive?

Quick as a snake, she shot up and grabbed the gun, crushing  the barrel in her claws. The woman’s face lost all color. Michiru threw it aside. She took the woman by the neck. “Your way is quite a dirty method of hunting a monster, isn’t it?” She tightened her grip as the woman gasped. “Did you think you could convince me I was too human to fight you? Did you think I’d fall in love and just lie down to die when you took it away?”

“Michiru!”

Michiru let the woman collapse and turned on Haruka before she could enter the room. “This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

Haruka shook her head, stepping back down the hall.

“I should have known. You could have no real interest in me. It was a game. You wanted my guard down so that you and your friends could have a bit of sport.”

“No, I don’t know who that is, Michiru, please—“

“Why should I believe you?” She grabbed the front of Haruka’s shirt, claws raking over and into the soft skin beneath. “Do you think I’m so gullible as to think it’s a coincidence this happens as soon as your friend shows up?” She shoved her against the wall. “You nearly played me for a fool. You nearly had me.”

“No I—“

“Don’t!” She threw Haruka to the ground. “You denied my monstrousness to hide your own. Leave this place.”

“Michi—“

She swung her claws into the wall, leaving scores in the stone. “I will not be humiliated further!”

Uneven footsteps sounded down the hall. Michiru turned at just the moment for a thrown object to smack her across the face.

Minako stopped and removed her other shoe. “Let her go.”

Michiru looked at the shoe on the floor, then back to Minako. “You’re unarmed.” She laughed. “Oh, you did think you played the game well, didn’t you?” She approached slowly. There was a perverse joy, sometimes, in being a monster. There were moments where she felt sweet vindication in how the world saw her, and whatever self hatred would come after, those times washed over her tongue like well-aged wine.

Minako kicked, and Michiru let her heel catch her chin. The cut of her teeth against her cheek felt right. A lady never made the first strike. And now—

And now Haruka was at their feet, bleeding on the ground between them. “Don’t.” She looked from Michiru to Minako and back again. “Please don’t.”

“I’m not letting her hurt you more,” Mina said, still brandishing her shoe as though it were a weapon.

“Mina, please.”

It hit Michiru like another bullet. Something inside her burst and bled.

Haruka plead for them both. Haruka had not lied.

Minako had believed Haruka was in danger. And Michiru had proved her right.

“No,” she whispered, retreating. “No.” She tore at the shoulders of her dress with her claws. “No.”

“Michiru…” Haruka stood, shaky.

“No. Stay away.” Every worst thing she’d ever believed about herself had been right. Everything except that she was unlovable, and that was much, much worse. “Stay away from me.”

“I didn’t—“

“I know.” Her claws raked through the gown, against her scales, it did not matter. “Don’t get any closer.”

Haruka stopped, listening to caution, it seemed, for once in her life. It was good, it was right, and still Michiru’s heart sunk lower.

“Rei!”

Michiru did not turn in time to see the prompt for Minako’s exclamation. She heard the gun, and this time whoever it was was smart enough to go for a headshot.


	16. Chapter 16

Haruka was no stranger to fucking things up. Mina loved to remind her of their teenage years, the mailboxes she’d run over and the relationships she’d torn herself from, that trail of destruction they could laugh about now because they had been young, even if Haruka was barely any different now.

Michiru did not hit the floor. Usagi was there, suddenly, and caught her with a shriek, cradled her head in her lap while she cried. She stroked her hair, stroked the wound, hands covered in--

Haruka was no stranger to fucking things up. She always believed she knew the way, always believed she could fix things, never realized when she was wrong until far too late. It got her here, it got her into plenty of bad situations before, and--

“This is why I said it was a bad idea.” 

“We weren’t doing so poorly--”

“Hotaru’s lucky to be alive right now!”

Haruka was no stranger to fucking things up. But this was different. This made the whole world stop. Her ears rang, everything was too bright. She should have… should have tackled Michiru aside, when she saw the other woman, should have said something, should have stopped it.  Her breathing was wrong, out of sync, it didn’t reach past her throat. She should have never said she was leaving, should have--

She was being pulled somewhere. It took a moment for her to ground herself enough to realize Mina had taken her hand. The other woman was trying to lift the first woman by the shoulders. Haruka let herself be led to grab her feet.

She’d thought she could help. She’d thought she could break the curse, and then she’d just thought… she’d been selfish. She’d got carried away, and here they were. 

They tugged at her to move, but she could not. Haruka’s whole body was cold. She stared back at Michiru, limp in Usagi’s arms. If she stared long enough, it looked like she was still breathing. Like Haruka hadn’t fucked up so irreversibly. Like-- 

“Haruka,” Mako whispered, appearing next to her. “You promised me you would leave.”

Haruka looked up to her, feeling like Mako spoke the first words she’d heard in years. “But…”

“Please. You’ve done enough.”

“I’m sorry.” Haruka moved as Mina pulled at her arm, feet like lead in every step. By the time they made it outside, her arms were shaking. She let the woman she held down on the grass and collapsed.

“You killed her,” she said to the other woman. The shock and grief wound tight inside her snapped. She began to cry and could not hide it. Her hands made fists in the dirt beneath her, needing something to grab hold of and finding nothing. “You didn’t need to kill her.”

The woman threw up her hands like she might want to kill Haruka, too. “You all want to make me the bad guy, fine, whatever, but I saved all your stupid lives.” She marched over to the car. “And I’m going to save more.” She retrieved a gas can from the trunk. 

Haruka could not piece it together. The woman did not take the gas down the road to Haruka’s truck. She took it to the house and began pouring it down the side, walking along to trace the outer wall. 

Mina knelt down and put a hand on Haruka’s shoulder, rubbing her back the way she always did when Haruka broke down. “It’s going to be alright, buddy.”

“What’s she doing?” Haruka asked, feeling like a child. 

“You’re not the first person to be taken, Haruka. We found out a lot. Some people never made it out. But some did.”

She blinked, uncomprehending. 

“Other people have thought they killed the monster. But it apparently has someone who can heal it.”

Haruka thought a moment, then leapt to her feet. “Of course! Usagi heals people, that’s why everything felt better. So then… so then...” She grabbed Mina by the arms. “Michiru’s not dead? I didn’t kill her?” She wanted to cry more, almost, at the prospect. 

Mina looked into her eyes. “Oh buddy, no. You didn’t do this. It’s… Oh fuck.” She sighed and pulled away. “Rei, stop!” She ran towards the woman. “We can’t do this.”

Rei turned, gas can in hand. “What?”

“Whatever has happened, Haruka--”

“Has clearly suffered trauma and isn’t thinking clearly.” Rei pulled the gas can away as Mina tried to make a grab at it. “You wanted me to believe in the witch, well, I believe in her. We saw what she can do, and heard more of it, and that makes it our duty to stop it.”

“That’s not--”

Rei threw the gas can in a window, the sound of breaking glass bringing clarity to Haruka’s mind seconds before she lit a match. Mina lunged for it, but the woman was quick. With just a flick of her wrist she tossed it against gas-soaked wall.

The whole thing roared into flame quicker than the blink of an eye.

Haruka was already running.

“Haruka!” Mina yelled after her. Haruka could not make out the rest of what she shouted, though she faintly registered that she turned on Rei. Haruka barreled back through the door moments before the flames swallowed it. She could not yet think about how she would get back out. She could not think of how the smoke pulled at her lungs, made her stride unsteady. She could not think of the heat, the flames at heels, the sweat already dripping down her back. Only one thought consumed her, beat through her body steady as her pulse, and then steadier. 

Michiru was alive, and Haruka was not going to let that change. Haruka was going to make this right. Haruka really would save her this time.


	17. Chapter 17

Michiru came to slowly as the pain in her head receded like a wave pulled back over the sand into the sea. And as she opened her eyes and saw the room empty save for Makoto and Usagi, who held her, a new one crashed in. The pain washed over every crevice of her heart. 

Her breath caught.

Usagi stopped crying. “Michiru, you’re okay! I was scared this time-”

“You have to get out of here,” Mako cut in. “They’ve lit the house on fire.” She met Usagi’s eyes grimly. They could not go beyond the walls. They would have to trust that they were immaterial enough not to burn.

“I’m sorry,” Michiru said, extracting herself from Usagi’s arms. “I have been given every chance for absolution, and instead I have dug my own grave. And yours.” Then again, had they not always been fated to end up here? Love would not break the curse. And yet… Michiru felt she had ruined her only salvation. Haruka might have really come to love her. Except Michiru had shown that she would never be worthy of anything but the fires she could now hear building ever bigger, ever closer. 

“If you go now, Usagi should be able to heal any injuries you sustain.”

“I will not be going anywhere.” Michiru would not cry, not now. She did not deserve even her own sympathy. “What is there in the world for a monster like me? I shall perish with this house.” She turned and made her best approximation of a curtsy. “You have served me well, and I thank you. I hope you can find a way to make it out when I am gone.”

“You can’t do this.”

“Why not?”

Neither Makoto nor Usagi answered her. They knew, surely, that there was no reason at all. She had proven, once and for all, that there was nothing good in her. There was nowhere to go from here. 

“I’d like a moment, please.” She made her way to the balcony. “Just one moment alone, before…”

Makoto nodded. “We will stay close.” She took Usagi by the shoulder and they disappeared together.

Michiru stared at the dark, starless sky as the smoke began to waft out around her. She had been such a fool. A fool to scorn so many, a fool to believe she could ever make up for it, a fool to believe it could ever not matter. 

“Is this what you felt?” she asked into the night, wondering if somehow the witch who’d cursed her would hear it through the years. “Had you believed?” Michiru had not set fire to her home-- though that wasn’t fair to say, she was sure now. That girl had had an idea of a home with Michiru, and Michiru had torched it thoroughly. Carelessly. Cruelly. Perhaps Michiru’s only claim to greater pain was that Haruka was not cruel. It could not have been a shock when Michiru acted as such, but Haruka… with Haruka, it was a reflection upon Michiru. 

She could not stop a tear, then, and she could not stop the next. 

She turned away from the open air and towards the smoke. She took her wretched hand mirror up one last time. “Show me what could have been,” she whispered, voice thick. “Show what could have been if I were worthy.”

It’s surface shone bright for a moment, and then it showed only Michiru’s face as it had been before the change. 

“No,” she said, shaking it. “That’s not what I want now, show me Haruka, show me—“

She froze. A hand, not a claw, held the mirror’s handle. Her hand. Her smooth, human hand. The glass showed her shocked face, full cheeks and pink lips, hair still wound atop her head, but soft now, even beginning to fizz in the night air around the edges of the braid. Her dress, torn at the shoulders, hung loosely around a human body, with human curves and human lines. She wiggled her bare toes--toes!-- and felt the stone beneath them.

A sound bubbled up from her throat, and she could not identify it as a laugh or a sob. Of course this would come now, when there was nothing left to make it matter. It was truly hilarious, and tragic, and shocking and inevitable and she wanted to break the mirror, shatter it now that it was as powerless as she was, but it would do nothing, and--

A shout came from the hall. Michiru swallowed her feelings and hurried back into the room, only to have the wind knocked from her by the embrace of a now very solid Usagi. The shorter woman sobbed against her. Makoto trailed behind, teary as well, fingertips skating over her palms and marveling at the feel of her own skin.

“You have to get out of here,” Michiru said. She felt hollow. A puppet, going through a script. “Others have climbed up to the balcony, surely you can climb down.”

“You can’t expect us to leave you,” Usagi looked up with big, bloodshot eyes.

Michiru pressed her lips together. “Of course not,” she lied. “I will be right behind you.” She patter Usagi’s head. “You’ll be able to see your daughter again. Or granddaughter.” 

“And you promise you’ll come, too?”

“I promise.” 

To the already damned, a broken promise meant nothing.

“You should go first, Makoto,” she continued. “To help Usagi.”

Makoto looked at her, eyes knowing, conflicted. She stepped up, and Michiru feared she would argue, but then she pulled Michiru into a hug. “She won’t make it on her own. I have to protect her,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I could not protect you.” She pulled back and kissed Michiru’s forehead, like she were an angel giving a blessing. “Come on, Usagi, I’ll find the safest way down.”

Usagi looked between them, perhaps suspecting, but then she followed Makoto to the balcony and began to climb.

Michiru sank to the floor. Her legs felt so small and weak, now. Little twigs, compared to what had replaced them for so long. She ran her hands along them and wondered how she’d even manage, had she followed Makoto and Usagi. This body was small and slow and vulnerable. She felt physical fear for the first time in decades as the roar of the fire drew closer. 

It seemed to call her name now. The flames were her portal to hell, and they beckoned her, ready to claim their bounty.  _ Michiru! Michiru! _

“Michiru!”

It was not the fire. Someone was calling her name.

“Mi-chi-ruuu!” Coughing followed. 

No, this could not happen. She had just sent Usagi away, if Haruka got hurt… And why would Haruka be here, why… 

“Michiru!”

Hope and fear battled for her heart. She stood on her pathetic, shaky twigs, and ran.

“Mich—“

Michiru followed the sound of coughing. Her breaths got shorter, the weakness of her body and the pervasiveness of the smoke straining her lungs. “Haruka!” She shouted while she still could.

“Michiru!”

She slowed to a walk, refusing to stop as her muscles began to radiate pain. She followed the sounds down the stairs, back towards the ballroom. The smoke grew thicker,  the heat more intense. “Haruka!”

“I thought you were dead!” Haruka sounded close now, invisible still among the ash. “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t stop them, but I won’t let you die.”

Part of the ceiling crashed down to Michiru’s left. “Haruka!” Her heart beat like a wild thing in its cage.  _ You should have left! Better to have me die alone than see you hurt. _

“Are you okay?” Haruka coughed. 

“Where are you?” Michiru kept moving forward, and finally she could see Haruka’s shadow through the smoke. “I’m here,” she said, but shut her mouth quickly as ash and smoke blistered her tongue.

Their hands met first. Haruka flinched at the touch. The fire surged closer. They were illuminated for the first time. Haruka gasped, then sputtered, coughing violently.  She began to wobble on her feet as she tried to say something, but could not get a breath around the harsh clouds around them.

“No, no it’s okay--” But she crumbled, slumping limp to the floor. Michiru’s mind raced, Haruka needed to breath. She needed to breathe but the air was wretched and-- and Michiru knew what to do. She tore fabric from the shoulder of her dress, one rough square and then another, grateful that it was already mostly ripped. She pressed one against Haruka’s face and one against her own. It made breathing easier, but the smoke still came through. They had to get out. Haruka did not move, even as her breathing became more regular. Michiru could not climb down the balcony with her. Michiru was not sure she could move her at all.

The fire was close now. She didn’t have a choice. Michiru grabbed Haruka under the shoulders, looping one hand up to hold the cloth over Haruka’s mouth. and lifted her as best she could, letting her feet drag. Just an hour ago, it would have been nothing to her. Who would have believed that she’d miss that form so much?

This form ached, made her aware of every muscle she had as it screamed. It did not matter. Beautiful, stupid Haruka was not going to die here. She dragged her through the dark, ashy halls, through rooms where flames licked at Haruka’s shoes and threatened to consume the whole of them. For all the times she’d been shot, stabbed, hunted, persecuted, she had never felt so much pain. 

And never had she felt as much relief as when she finally saw a window, a beautiful, breakable, window, large enough for a body to go through. They were going to make it. She could not think of all the other things that waited outside the window-- of all the things that would happen to Michiru, of what, exactly, was in the world for a monster like her-- only of Haruka’s salvation. Nothing else in the world could matter. 

She was going to save Haruka as surely as Haruka had saved her. 

She was going to do one good thing. Even a monster could do one good thing. 

Michiru smashed through the window, and let come what may.


	18. Chapter 18

Sunlight, dappled by the patterns of soft lace curtains, danced around Haruka’s bedside. She could not place where she was. Her body ached, though she was comforted by strong smells of breakfast food, sweet cinnamon sugar and bacon grease and coffee. This was not a place she’d ever been. Minako’s breakfast of choice was cold pizza, and Michiru…

She shot up, head spinning from the motion.  _ Michiru! _

“Take it easy, buddy.” Minako sat in a chair on the other side of the bed, natural dark circles replacing her usual makeup. “We don’t know how well you’ve healed.”

Haruka leaned back against the headboard. “But… what happened? I thought I found her, but…”

“Everyone’s fine, but back it up there a bit. I have to yell at you still.” Mina stood, chest puffed and ready to go, but then her face crumpled and she slid onto the bed and threw her arms around Haruka. “I thought you were dead so many times.”

“I’m sorry, Mina. I’m alright. I’m alright.”

Mina pulled away and sniffed. “I’m going to find a way to adopt you, just so I can ground you.” She jabbed a finger into Haruka’s chest. “You are not going anywhere without me, young lady.”

Haruka ruffled her hair. “You’ve never seemed the maternal type.”

“If you keep finding new ways to put yourself in danger, I’ll fucking do it.” She looped her arm around Haruka’s shoulders. “We are buying you at least five external phone chargers. And  _ you’re _ going to buy me something nice for all my troubles.”

“I’m really sorry, Mina.”

“You should be.” She paused. “I’m not. Maybe you think I should be, but I’m not. Presented with all the same evidence again, I’d do the exact same thing.”

“Mina…”

“I know you think she changed, or is good deep down, but that doesn’t matter. She hurt you, and I had to protect you. And god knows you’re going to be stupid about this, and try and keep something going with her--”

“She made it out, then?”

Mina rolled her eyes. “See? Stupid.” But she rubbed her shoulders. “But we had a lot of things wrong, so maybe we’re all a little stupid. The stories said she cursed herself out of hatred for other people.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Yeah, we got an earful from a couple of former ghosts for that one. It doesn’t excuse anything.” Mina looked at Haruka with just enough guilt, though, that made it clear it was complicated to her. “I can’t stop any of this. But if she ever so much as raises her voice at you…”

“God, I missed you.”

Mina smiled. “I missed you too, buddy.” She patted her back. “Now, there’s breakfast waiting, and a few people very eager to see you.” 

Haruka followed her nose towards the kitchen, met halfway by a rosy-cheeked, breathless Usagi. “Haruka! You’re awake!” She danced over to hug her, feet loud and heavy even against the carpeted floor. “I want you to meet my family.” 

She pulled Haruka into a dining room, where a handful of women, including Makoto, sat around the table. Usagi went first to an older woman with tear rimmed eyes. “This is my granddaughter.” Usagi teared as well as she said it. “Setsuna.” The older woman squeezed her hand with a smile. Together, their hands made the mismatch of ages all too clear-- Usagi’s was smooth, Setsuna’s boney and arthritic. 

“And this,” Usagi said, flinging herself towards a younger woman who, remarkably, bore a trace of resemblance to her. “Is my great-great granddaughter. She was named after me.”

The second Usagi grinned. “Call me Teenie, though, or it’ll get confusing.”

“And this is her girlfriend, Hotaru! I’ll get to attend their wedding!”

Hotaru looked deeply uncomfortable. Haruka could not be sure if it was because they were not engaged, or because Haruka recognized her as the first woman who’d shot Michiru. She could not think on it long, because Usagi once again threw her arms around her and began to sob. “Thank you, Haruka. I finally get to meet them.”

“I didn’t do anything, Usagi.”

“You did.”

Makoto stood and wrapped them both in a hug. “Michiru is outside, if you wish to see her,” she whispered in Haruka’s ear.

It filled Haruka with more nerves than she expected. She’d seen, for just a moment in the fire, that Michiru had changed. She hadn’t trusted what she saw, but Makoto and Usagi were proof, weren’t they? And if the curse had broken, would Michiru want anything to do with Haruka?

Haruka found her on the front lawn, curled up in a patio chair in the sun. Her hair now fell in soft waves down her back. She had delicate shoulders beneath the sleeves of an oversized borrowed shirt, and delicate hands crossed over her lap. She was stunning. Haruka was painfully out of her depth.

Michiru turned, then, and met her eyes. “The sun’s nice, on my skin.”

“Oh, uh, yeah.”

She gave a polite half smile. “I am of a mind to tell you you have no further obligation to me, with the curse broken, and yet I feel that’s not what I was supposed to learn.”

“What… I mean, how…” Haruka could not seem to make her brain connect with her mouth. There was too much to say, and she felt exposed without the weight of the curse between them. 

“How did the curse break, you mean?” She turned back towards the sun and closed her eyes. “Well, it was my own misery, naturally. You provided the missing piece.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s what I needed. I lied to you, when I said that I had loved and been loved. The former is true only in the crudest sense.” She took a deep breath. “The woman who cursed me said I would feel as bad as I made others feel, and then worse. And she had loved me. I had never considered that she loved me.”

Haruka felt warm, and could not pretend it was from the morning sun. “So… you’re saying… are you saying…” She swallowed hard. “That… that…”

“Yes, Haruka, I love you, and you need not think anything of it.”

“But you’re beautiful now. I mean, you kind of were before, in a weird way, but you were also, you know, not, and now… now you’re just beautiful.”

Michiru turned back to her, sliding her legs around the side of her chair. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Well, you could have anyone now.”

Michiru gave a slight chuckle. “We certainly don’t have to worry that we have nothing in common, do we?” She stood. Haruka saw for the first time how small she was, only a few inches taller than Usagi and Teenie. “You are, of course, free to do as you wish. But I would like to give you flowers again, many times, if you would allow it.”

“I have nothing to offer you.”  


“Nor I you. My dowry would be quite worthless now, even were it not burned to ash.”

Haruka could not help but smile. “You've got so much to learn.”

“Perhaps you could teach me.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” Their eyes met. “You know, there’s something I wanted to do last night, before everything went to shit. Could I maybe…”

Somehow, Michiru looked as scared now as she had then. But she nodded, and Haruka stepped in close, and then it was Michiru who closed the gap. For a moment their fears didn’t matter, nor their shortcomings. The world narrowed to two pairs of petal-soft lips, to desire and hope and belief that change was not the breaking of a curse but the decision to be brave and open, to work for worthiness rather than resign to its absence. 

And when the kiss broke, the world did not return to how it had been before. Haruka looked into Michiru’s eyes and knew it never would. 


End file.
